How Rockhounds Get Started

We share the stories of our visitors who would like to send them in. This is an interesting article from one of our visitors, Greg, who would like to share his experiences: How Two Young Girls Became Rock Hounds

Are rock hounds born or are they made? I really don't know for sure, but I do know that I have two of the cutest and most enthusiastic young rock hounds I've ever seen. My girls love rocks! They've always collected small rocks (and begged me to let them keep the bigger ones too). Any time we get out to the lake or when we go hiking in the woods, they always come home with their pockets stuffed full of pretty stones. I think this is normal for kids, and their love of rocks would have probably faded away by now if not for those two huge boxes of doom. Boxes of doom? Well, that's kind of a long story so I'll just give you the summary....

We love garage sales, flea markets, junk stores and just about any gathering of odd used items. Some of our favorite finds include an old bedpan, a plastic male torso (department store underwear model), a stuffed (taxidermy) armadillo, and of course - the two huge boxes of doom. We got the boxes at a storage facility auction. I had never been to a storage auction before so we went to check it out. It was very interesting, but I didn't bring any money and I was not planning to buy anything. Three units were going up for auction when we arrived. Two were full of your normal everyday junk sale junk - the kind of stuff you'd expect to find in an abandoned storage unit. The third unit was almost half empty, but stacked neatly along one side of the room were dozens and dozens of sturdy looking boxes. We weren't supposed to touch anything in the units, but when nobody was looking I reached in and poked one of the boxes .... solid and HEAVY. What could it be?

We didn't have to wait long to find out. An older gentleman won the auction and rushed in to see what he had purchased. Were the boxes full of gold bars? Or maybe stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills? No, the heavy box that I had poked contained a huge amethyst geode! It had been roughly cut or broken in half and it was beautiful. Apparently the original owner of the storage unit was a rock hound who had stashed away his or her wonderful collection of rocks. There were boxes and boxes of amazing stones, and even some gold panning equipment. I think we were more excited about all the cool stuff than the new owner was.

When he noticed my girls eagerly watching him open each box, he asked if they would like one. "We can have a rock sir?" they asked. "No, you can each have a BOX of rocks!" They each picked out their own box and then we helped the man load up his trailer (ugh). The girls could not thank the kind man enough for the wonderful gift. I think this is when the whole "rock hound" deal was sealed.

When we arrived back at the house, the girls quickly unpacked their boxes and arranged all of their new rocks in a row along the wall of the family office. Then they ran to the back yard to bring in all the rocks they had been collecting over the years. At this point the office was totally littered with rocks of all shapes, sizes and colors.

We spent the next two weekends decorating the office and turning it into our new rock room. We painted the room in earth-tones, built some strong shelving for the stones, and we even ordered some really neat stacked-stone wall stickers. The room looks awesome, and we are constantly adding to our collection.

I'm so glad the girls decided to keep the rocks in the office rather than in their bedrooms. Now it's our special place to hang out and talk about our next rock hunting adventure. If you're a rock hound, or if you live with one, you should consider setting up your own rock room. Ours really rocks!

So I guess I would say that my rock hounds were born rather than made. I mean they already had a huge pile of rocks out back, and they'd been collecting since before they could walk. Now me, on the other hand, I consider myself a self-made rock hound. I didn't see this train coming, but I'm glad I hopped on board with my family. Happy treasure hunting!