| Idaho's
High Desert Hides Opal |
AP Online
Monday, October 28, 2002 9:35 AM EST
REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press Writer
SPENCER, Idaho (AP)
-- From Interstate 15, the tiny town passes in a moment, just a blip
of brown buildings in the desert. But
inside the local stores is a treasure trove. The fire of opals
erupts from jewelry cases lining the walls.
Spencer, population
38, holds one of the largest opal deposits in the United States and
is home to rare star opals. Though white is the most common color
worldwide, Spencer miners find rarer blue, pink or red gems.
``Our customers are
generally jewelers and distributors,'' said Bob Thompson, who owns
Opal Mountain Mines with his wife, Susan. ``In the winters we close
up and go to California because you can't mine when the ground is
covered in snow. But people do stop in from the highway, and they're
generally surprised at all we have.''
All they have
includes opal jewelry and loose stones, traditional fire opals and
opals that have rarer patterns that look like peacock feathers,
harlequin squares or stars.
One wall is lined
with mason jars, filled with gray, broken rocks. The rocks are
veined with flaky layers of raw opal, the same way it comes out of
the mine.
``This is the only
place in America where you can sell canned opals, you've got so
much,'' Susan Thompson said.
Two lost deer
hunters from Rexburg discovered opals in the area in 1948 as they
wandered about 70 miles from the west edge of Yellowstone National
Park. The first claim was filed in 1952, and now the town is
dominated by four commercial opal companies.
Dennis and Jackie
Hooper are the newcomers. Dennis Hooper, a longtime rockhound, mines
his claim to supply his store, High Country Opal. Brightly painted
signs aimed at the highway proclaim the store is open 365 days a
year -- an idea his neighbors laughed at.
``They said there's
no way I'd stay open every single day of the year,'' Dennis Hooper
said. ``But I am. In wintertime, this is the only restroom open in
100 miles.''
Travelers who dash
in for a rest stop pause when they see the gems, he said. They
generally leave sporting an opal ring, earrings or necklace.
The jewelry ranges
in price from a few dollars to a few hundred.
``You never know
what you're going to end up with until the final cut,'' said Hooper,
turning one piece under a light so the fire flashes on the counter.
``Opal is thousands of microscopic colors. The trick to cutting it
is stopping.''
The colors are
spheres of silica and water suspended in the rock. The deposits
formed when geysers erupted, leaving thin layers of opal that
stacked up over time.
Occasionally, opal
miners will find a layer thick enough to cut solid stones. More
frequently the opals are made into doublets or triplets. Doublets
are opal ground into a thin layer and glued on a basalt or obsidian
back. Triplets are doublets that have been capped with a clear,
protective quartz dome.
The dome protects
the delicate gems. Opals have a high water content and tend to flake
or crack as they dry out, unless they are sealed or treated with
chemicals.
``I feel like I can
cut as good an opal triplet as anyone in the world,'' Hooper said.
``It's not rocket science. Just a lot of tedious, time-consuming
work.''
Claudia Couture
knows that as well as anyone. She owns the Spencer Opal Mine, the
oldest and largest mine in the area.
Couture's parents
bought their 40-acre claim in 1964 and the family moved to Spencer
in 1968 when she was 15. At first, they opened the mine to tourists
and rockhounds who paid a set fee for a day of digging.
Now that Couture is
in charge, opal-hunting tourists can still pay $30 a day, per
person, on summer holiday weekends. But the mine primarily supplies
her retail business.
``People have so
many other hobbies than they did in the '70s,'' she said. ``Now most
want to buy the jewelry already made.''
Though there are
four opal operations in Spencer, the town is not competitive, she
said.
``Everybody has a
slightly different style or look when they cut and set the opals.
And people who are really serious about buying opal will go to all
four shops in town and pick the style that appeals to them,''
Couture said.
And the vagaries of
the economy seem unfelt in Spencer.
``It's the
birthstone for October, so it's always popular. And our profit seems
to be relative to what we can produce,'' she said. ``For instance,
last summer, when the economy was supposed to be fairly decent, we
had one of our poorest years. And this summer we've had really good
business even though there's been economic troubles nationally.''
When the Spencer
Opal Mine closes for the winter -- usually around the end of October
-- the Coutures move to Arizona, bringing with them raw opal waiting
to be cut and set into jewelry.
The winter is also
the season for gem shows, when the miners can sell directly to
jewelers and wholesale companies.
``I've done this my
whole life, and I've never had to work for anyone else,'' Couture
said. ``I enjoy finding a really unique pattern and color
combination when I cut the stones. Opal mining is just a good
living.''
On the Net:
High
Country Opal:
http://www.opalstore.com
Opal
Mountain Mines:
http://www.idopalmine.com
Spencer
Opal Mine:
http://www.yellowstonemall.com/opal/
Copyright
© 2002 Associated Press Information Services, all rights reserved.
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