Agate Days

Moose Lake, Minnesota is proud home to Agate Days. Each summer, when people from all over the area come out of winter hibernation, the Agate Day festival begins. The next Agate Days festival is this weekend, July 15-16, 2006 and the “Agate Stampede” begins at 2pm Saturday.

It takes careful preparation for this important festival, first, the city must find a dump truck, fill the dump truck with tons of gravel and dirt, then they add 300 lbs. of Agates and $300 in quarters from the 1st National Bank, the Star Gazette, and the Lake State Federal Credit Union, and they pour the mixture onto the main street. Elm Street. Check out this interesting video of the dump truck and the crowds of excited rock hounds.

I think Elm Street was chosen because this is the only street in town with a stoplight, an important attribute when you’re pouring tons of rocks onto the main thoroughfare in town.

Then comes “a wild scramble of Finders-Keepers that everyone, young and old, can enjoy”.

An important tourist attractive this festival is as “Thousands of rock lovers come to the Agate Capital of the World each summer to enjoy the camaraderie of being with fellow rock hounds. This is the 35th year that the Carlton County Gem & Mineral Club has organized this event”.

Even the local bank gets in on the action: “Moose Lake is home to the Largest Lake Superior Agate, weighing in at 108 pounds and can be seen in the lobby of the First National Bank of Moose Lake”. A giant rock in the bank! How exciting!

But, you may ask yourself, “what is an agate?”. Thanks to the people at Agates R Us, we have an answer.

The Minnesota State Gemstone

Agates were formed over 1 billion years ago. Molten rock came spurting up from cracks in the earth's surface. Inside of these flows, gas bubbles were trapped in magma as it cooled and then hardened. Ground water then carried a solution of dissolved silica and other minerals and entered into these vesicles and crystallized until they were completely filled.

Later, during the Great Ice Age, four major glaciations occured, The Wisconsin, The Kansan, The Illinoian and The Nebraskan. The Wisconsin Glaciation, also known as the Superior Lobe, moved south over these old lava flows and washed away and then re-deposited the Lake Superior Agates along the way. Deposits of these rare semi-precious gemstones are found in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Searching For Agates

First, you must find someplace that looks like the terrain in this photo. The only piece of realism not captured by the photo is the mosquite bites.

Metaphysical Properties of Agates

And what fantastic gems they are these agates! From the Agates R Us site: “Agates provide for balancing of yin-yang energy and for harmonizing our physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects. They can stabilize our aura, provide for a cleansing of dysfunctional energy, and can both transform and eliminate negativity. They can help us to examine ourselves as well as the circumstances relevant to our well-being. Agates can be used to stimulate analytical capabilities and precision. They increase our perceptiveness in complex situations and can help awaken our inherent talents.”

Stabilize my Yang! Eliminate negativity! Harmonizing my intellectual aspects! Awaken my inherent talents! I’ve gotta go book my flights…