Description

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New to rockhounding or ready to ramp up your skills? This contemporary guide to rock collecting goes beyond the “where and how” to include info on environmental impact, land stewardship, and building a truly meaningful collection.

Do you love rocks and gems? Are you a geology enthusiast? This informative guidebook by professional lapidary artist and outdoor recreation guide Alison Jean Cole shows you that beautiful rocks can be found anywhere. You’ll be expertly guided through the practice of rockhounding (looking for rocks) while learning how to be gentle on the earth.

Unlike traditional rock guides, which take readers to well-trodden locations in each state, this book can be used anywhere in the United States or Canada. You'll be guided through the process of becoming an adept rockhound, including:

• How to read geologic maps and way-find
• How to consider the ethics of rock collecting
• Developing your personal tastes in rocks and building a collection

 
Packed with information and fifty-eight accompanying full-color photos, Beautiful Rocks and How to Find Them is perfect for seasoned collectors and beginner rockhounds alike. It also makes a wonderful gift or self-purchase for nature lovers and rock, mineral, and fossil enthusiasts who love looking for and identifying cool rocks in the wild but could use some expertise and guidance.

About the Author

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Alison Jean Cole is a geology enthusiast based in Portland, Oregon. She travels all over the western United States in search of materials to use in her lapidary craft. She leads rockhounding expeditions, is a proud member of her local rock club, and self-publishes Thunderegg, a zine that focuses on the changing face of rockhounding culture.

Praise For…

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“This book is so needed. Cole chips away at the cliche of the rockhound as frenzied hoarder, gently replacing it with a new ideal: the rockhound as a well-informed, responsible earth steward. This one’s a keeper!”

—Martin Holden, author of The Encyclopedia of Gemstones and Minerals

“This book is an invitation to listen to what the Earth has to say to you. It brings together how to access potential sites with geological treasures and alerts you to the rules and ethics of collecting rocks in general. How do you get information about potential collecting areas as they are now? The internet is a marvelous tool, but Cole also reminds us that paper maps are still a good thing and to not follow technology (GPS devices) blindly and drive off that cliff. As the Bureau of Land Management used to note on my permit letters 40 to 50 years ago, ‘Have fun, but don't get hurt.’”

—James Kirkland, PhD, Utah State Paleontologist