ArkaVista

Illustration of a bird flying.

For us that grew up in the area, it is just “oh COOL! I found some Quartz!” when you’re out messing around with your buddies. You see a glint, and start digging, next thing ya know, there’s some quartz. “Uh, that’s a piece of a broken Mountain Dew bottle” “No it ain’t – that’s quartz!” “Since when is quartz green?” …. and so it went. Now to be clear, we do have agate and a bunch of other gems in the state…. so even the most authoritative voice sometimes had to go, “well now wait a minute…”

That falls smack in the middle of the Cone of Weirdness. There are people that harvest that stuff, put it in necklaces and what not, drive to California or wherever and sell it for magical healing powers. What do I know? Maybe it even works. All I know is….

In ArkaVista land, there are a few places that ALWAYS have crystal. People that own the land – for generations, will turn over the soil with a digger, and then, for a low price, I’m talking less than Movie Theatre tickets, you can go dig through the “spoils” as it is called when the dirt is dropped from the digger, and whatever you find, is yours. You’ll be dirty, sweaty, maybe give up and Dear ol Dad just buys some in the gift shop, but people DO find stuff all the time. Like the above. Regardless, it gives you an understanding of what mining and our planet is about. And why Arkansas is so different than the rest of the United States.

It is a fantastic treasure hunt for young minds – dirty muddy fun, and something everybody will remember for a long time when you land a keep sake size quartz. Which you will.

I haven’t EVEN gotten to the part where buttons (like for your shirt) in the 1800’s were made from Mother of Pearl from outside of the Cone of Weirdness. On the White River. We have many zones.