Treasure Hunting

Wonderstone is a particular type of rhyolite that is known for its colorful maroon, orange, yellow, and pink hues. Often these colors are banded in the stone, making beautiful patterns. The picture to the left is one that I found on Wikimedia Commons. It was taken by Dave Dyet. It doesn’t illustrate any of the banding, but you can see some of the interesting patterns that have formed in the rock.

Wonderstone is one of the softer forms of rhyolite. Because of this, it’s often used as a carving medium. However, its softness does mean that you have to be a bit more careful with it in a rock tumbler. If you want to smooth it out, try tumbling it without any grit (just water) for a few days. That should shape it and get rid of rough, jagged edges. It’s really not going to polish up that great in a rock tumbler, so don’t waste your polishing supplies. However, a colorful piece does look real nice after being tumbled a few days in just water. Use your judgement! You might be able to get some better results with harder wonderstone.

There are several places where wonderstone can be found. An area out near Grimes Point, Nevada (not to far from Fallon) is well-known for its wonderstone. There are also some areas in Utah and Wyoming. The nice thing about most of these places is that they’re on public land so it’s free to go look for wonderstone there. Just remember to clean up after yourself!