Treasure Hunting

If you’ve always wanted to go gem hunting for opals, you’ll have lots of places to choose from in Nevada’s Virgin Valley.  In addition to the numerous small privately-owned mines in that area, there are several places that offer fee mining opportunities.  These include digging through tailings piles as well as getting out there and digging in fresh areas.  Take a look at this article for some more details or see our Nevada page for a list of some of these Nevada opal mines.

Not too far away from this area of Nevada is the Juniper Ridge Opal Mine in Oregon.  Juniper Ridge does have a restriction that you can only carry out a gallon bucket full of opals for the initial $200 digging fee.  However, if you do find more that you want to keep, you can do so for an extra charge.  A gallon bucket full of opals is a lot of opals, though!  The mine is located between Klamath Falls and Lakeview in Oregon.  They do have a very limited capacity so reservations are necessary.  Crater Lake isn’t too far away from this locale so this would be a great activity to incorporate into a longer trip to Oregon.

Sunstones are a relatively uncommon member of the feldspar mineral group. A particularly interesting type of sunstone can be found in Oregon. These Oregon sunstones contain copper which leads to some interesting color varieties in the stone.

Due to their uniqueness to the state, Oregon has adopted the Oregon sunstone as its official state gemstone. The great thing about Oregon sunstone is that you can actually go on free digs to look for them! There are some mine in the Plush, Oregon area that charge fees, but the BLM has established one site in eastern Lake County as a free, public collecting site.

In addition, the Spectrum Sunstone Mine offers one day of free digging for those who wish to try their hand at locating some of these beautiful gems. If you want to stay for more than one day, that’s okay, but there is a $50 a day charge after the first day. Still, this is a great opportunity for the new enthusiast since there are experts on location to help you learn what to look for.