Gemfield

The sign and the box at the picnic table

At the head of the dig stands a welcome sign. It describes the mineral deposits in the area and how to find them. Nearby is a picnic table with a box, and in the box is a visitor log. The site’s own pages say permission to collect comes with a signature in that log. Travel Nevada and Atlas Obscura place the log at the entrance sign instead. In either place the signature also serves as a release of liability. The claims lie on Bureau of Land Management ground, but the rocks, minerals, and other materials on them are claimed property and may not be taken without that signature.

Digging costs $1 a pound, with discounts for rock clubs and for larger volumes. The owners’ site says payment may go into the box as cash or as a check made out to Goldfield Art & BS. It also accepts Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle by QR codes posted on site and at Goldfield Art & Business Services, 306 East Crook Avenue, which is Highway 95 through town. Travel Nevada and Atlas Obscura both say cash only. Every source agrees that the arrangement runs on the honor system. The owners’ site says the fee “helps the claim owners keep the area open and accessible for everyone.”

Beyond the sign, in Travel Nevada’s words, “the sea of sage transforms into every spectrum on the color wheel,” from blue greens to purply oranges, deep reds, and sparkly crystallized blacks. Open-pit digs lie just about everywhere. Visitors may park anywhere that does not block a road. Picks, shovels, and other hand tools are allowed. The recommended kit is a bucket, gloves, a rockhounding pick, a trowel, and a spray bottle. A resident herd of wild burros grazes the area, along with pronghorn, jackrabbits, coyotes, and a few reptiles. One photograph credited to Sharon Artlip shows a horned toad resting on a heap of the site’s stone.

Six kinds of chalcedony

The quarry here is chalcedony, a smooth, fine-grained variety of silica quartz. Its varieties include agate, jasper, and opalite. Travel Nevada counts six types of chalcedony at Gemfield, among them the bulls-eye chalcedony in another of Artlip’s photographs. Travel Nevada and Atlas Obscura both describe the deposit as thought to be the largest of gemstone-quality chalcedony in the United States. The colors run from green to black and from pale blue to pinkish purple. The stone suits polishing, tumbling, and jewelry work, and the claim’s Facebook page has posted jewelry made from Gemfield chalcedony.

The published lists of what else lies here vary. Travel Nevada names turquoise, obsidian, agate, jasper, crystal, lithium, borax, gold, and silver. Atlas Obscura names turquoise, jasper, borax, silver, and gold. The owners’ site reprints the Atlas Obscura list and adds a note: “Sharon says, ‘she has not found any turquoise yet.’”

Many of the stones look like dusty common rock until they are wet. A spray bottle brings out the reds and purply oranges. The owners advise scanning first for float, the pieces already weathered out onto the surface, to judge which ground holds the colors wanted. Color photographs on site help with identification. Colors show best just after a light rain or in the hour after sunrise or before sunset. The usual practice is to fill a five-gallon bucket with variety and then trade up as better pieces turn up. Sharon has her own method: “ditch the bucket and use pillow cases, set them by the road and pick up when you are done.”

The road from Goldfield

Gemfield lies northwest of Goldfield, off Highway 95 along Gemfield Road. The owners’ pages give the distance as about four miles in one place and five in another. Atlas Obscura puts it 30 miles south of Tonopah, and Travel Nevada puts it about three hours from Las Vegas. The owners do not recommend low-profile vehicles on the road and say tires should be in good shape. The owners list the site as open 24 hours a day, year round. Travel Nevada gives sunrise to sunset, and the owners’ rule for winter is short: “If snow, don’t go!”

Travel Nevada says there is no gasoline in Goldfield and that the nearest fuel is 28 miles north in Tonopah. Neither the town nor the dig has public restrooms. The owners advise extra water, a spare tire, and care in the high-altitude sun even in cooler months. Fenced areas around the dig mark old mine sites, which are unsafe to enter. They are remnants of Esmeralda County’s mining past, which drew people from across the country hoping to hit it big. Back in Goldfield, Goldfield Art & Business Services sells cut chalcedony, and Travel Nevada sends diggers to the town’s rock shops for local opinions on what they have hauled down from the claim.