Searching for Lake Superior Agates

When I was a child and wandering down the road that led to my lake house near Brainerd, Minnesota, I found a wonderful Lake Superior agate. I knew it was an agate, but I didn’t know that it had a special designation until recently, when I was watching the show Cash and Treasures on the Travel Channel. The host was traversing the upper Midwest, discovering and selling these stones.

On a recent trip to central Minnesota, I set out to find Lake Superior agate cabochons that I could use in my jewelry making. As a child I remember the many rock shops that were along the highway so I thought this would be an easy task. Apparently, the rock shop is a thing of the past. Getting out the handy yellow pages and searching on the Internet, I found the only one in the area to be about an hour away and closed during my remaining two days in Minnesota.

In my research I did learn about these agates, how they were formed and where you can find them. And that they are the official state gemstone for Minnesota! If you would like to learn more, here is a link to the agate page on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources site.

And here is a photo of the agate I found as a child …