Peregrine Rocks and Trading Post Rocks & Minerals Page

We are avid collectors of the Earth's art ;-) (rocks and minerals). We travel around the country, mostly in the west to collect and purchase items. We have a small workshop set up for us to use in polishing and finishing items like bookends, thunder egg halves, and display slabs.< hover for larger detailed image; click to visit page

We also visit a couple of shows each year to sell our items and rough. Come see us May each year at the Snyder's Ranch Pow-wow.
We can also usually be found at the Santa Cruz Mineral & Gem Society's annual show as well as the Santa Clara Valley Gem & Mineral Society's annual show.
Please visit our other pages (menu near the top) to see the tools, fire agate, and other items we have for sale. Also, below are some of our specimens that we have kept.

In November 2006 and Feb 2007 Dean was lucky enough to visit the Benitoite Gem Mine in the Clear Creek BLM area of San Benito County for some fee-digging. He brought back a bucket of material each time. With the friendly help of Rick Kennedy, a Benitoite expert, these three spectacular specimens came from two large pieces of rough mine material. hover for larger detailed image.

And some close ups of each one. Each of the specimen's is about the same size, with the middle piece having the largest crystal, approximately the size of a US dime. hover for larger detailed image.

In Feb 2009, Dean and Karen visited the Tucson Gem & Mineral shows. At one of the hotel shows we found this Chalcanthite (or Chankantite), which is a form of Copper Sulfate, for sale. Both of us loved the color and because of the use of Copper Sulfate in Water Treatment we decided we just had to bring some home. hover for larger detailed image.

While attending the Ashwood Oregon "Rockstock" in about 1997, Dean and Karen found a wonderful piece of Petrified Wood on the McDonald ranch. The folks at Richardson's cut and polished this end slab from the piece. The original piece is kind of canine-tooth-shaped, about 35 pounds, 18 or 20 inches long and the slab is about 10 inches by 5 inches. hover for larger detailed image.

This is a limb from the Paulina limb cast area of Central Oregon. It was purchased at the Madras pow wow. It is approximatley 6 inches long and 3 inches wide across the face. It has a nice quart-crystal lined pocket in the face as well. hover for larger detailed image.

Now, speaking of Paulina - one of Dean's first ever rock collecting trips with Karen included a stop at the Paulina area. We didn't have a whole lot of luck there, until the very last minute, during a final camp walk-around to make sure all of our trash was picked up and Dean found this nut that very closely resembles a modern Hickory nut (Hickory nut included for reference). We have shown this item to a few people and so far nobody has ever seen another like it.

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Fire Opal from Spencer Idaho. This was purchased at one of the mine shops, because we got snowed out when we stopped to visit the mine. hover for larger detailed image.

One of our co-workers purchased this extremely large slab of Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper at a show. He asked us to polish it for him. Karen spent many hours using different techniques before finally calling it "good enough." hover for larger detailed image.

Another California classic: Stone Canyon Jasper. This is another large (~8 inches long and 5 tall), and thick (~3/8 inch), display slab with a fine polish. Actually, I have tried many times to take a good photo of this piece and I just can't seem to do it justice. hover for larger detailed image.

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