Colorado Gemstones

Colorado gemstones and state symbols

Colorado gemstones include two official state symbols: aquamarine, the state gem since 1971, and rhodochrosite, the state mineral since 2002. Aquamarine comes mostly from pegmatite pockets high on Mount Antero and neighboring White Mountain in Chaffee County. The finest rhodochrosite came from the Sweet Home Mine near Alma, now closed. Yule marble, from the town of Marble, is the state rock. The Colorado Geological Survey keeps a good overview of the state's gems.

Colorado minerals from the mining districts

Colorado minerals owe a lot to the mining booms, when the gold and silver veins of the San Juans, Leadville and Central City were worked for decades. Those veins carried quartz and pyrite along with the ore. The white vein quartz the miners threw aside is the same milky quartz as our San Juan County cluster, a crowd of stubby points from the old mining country around Silverton.

Colorado quartz

Colorado quartz comes in nearly every variety. Smoky quartz grows with blue-green amazonite in the Pikes Peak granite, clear quartz lines pockets on Mount Antero and in the old mines, amethyst runs through the veins at Creede, and banded agate and chalcedony turn up in the volcanic country of the San Juans.

Collecting Colorado gemstones

Collecting Colorado gemstones starts with knowing who owns the ground, since most famous sites sit on private land or active mining claims. The rockhounding Colorado guide covers the rules and the classic areas. For buying, September brings the Denver Gem and Mineral Show and the rest of the Denver show season, and geoslut is a crystal shop in Denver that sells online and ships from here.