Lakeland Public Television 
presents Common Ground
brought to you by the Minnesota Arts
and Cultural Heritage Fund
and the citizens of Minnesota.
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Hi! Welcome to Common Ground.
I'm your host Scott Knudson.
On this episode of Common
Ground
tour the 2014 Cuyuna Gem Rock
and Mineral Show with
the Rock Wizard as he
introduces us to the 
culture of rock hounds.
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Hi my name is
Harry Wagoner and
we're here at the Cuyuna Rock
Gem and Mineral Show in
Brainerd.
I've been the wizard here for
probably
6-7 years. 
It's my job
as the wizard to
hand out free rocks
to all the little kids and answer 
any questions they have.
And then of course answer 
any questions that grown-ups
have.
Do you know what 
kind of rock this is?
Well let's see.
Everybody has a rock and 
they wonder what it is. So I
try
and find out for them.
Probably from Montana.
So that would be 
called a Montana Agate.
I've been into rocks
since I was probably 7 years
old.
I became very interested 
and I use to pick agates.
I'm originally from Iowa.
We would have a 
lot of Lake Superior Agates
in Iowa. I always like
petrified wood.
So I would pick that too.
Then as the interest grew I had
a teacher in grade school
that was very inspiritual to me
She gave me some
mineral specimens.
And that really sparked my
interest and
I've been studying rocks and
minerals
basically my whole life.
We have this event every 
year and it gives a good
chance for people to experience
the wonders and all the
various aspects of 
what rock hounding is.
Of course this event is put on
and sponsored by the
Cuyuna Rock Gem and MIneral
Society.
And I have been fortunate
in the past years to have been 
the president of that several
times.
It is such a great club, 
because it's a place for
people that are interested
in rocks and
interested in knowing
and learning about rocks
to come together and
discuss it and look at
different people's rocks.
And just kind of share
knowledge and experiences.
We meet once a month
on the second Saturday
of the month.
Our clubhouse is
Crosby MN and anybody
here can that's at
our club tables
or any members of the club
can give you information
on who we are and
where we are. 
We have a nominal
club dues that we charge. 
Anybody that
might be interested 
in our rock club and possibly
joining or learning more
about rocks. We meet
the 2nd Saturday
of every month.
We also have a website
which is cuyunarockclub.org
And we're online
and there is any 
number of phone numbers
that are listed on there that you
can get in contact with someone
to find out more information.
What draws a lot of 
people to rocks is
the physical beauty of them and
kind of the mystery surrounding them. ppHow old they are?
And most people
when they find out how
old rocks are. It's pretty hard
for them to grasp that 
and really understand
that a rock can be
hundreds of millions or 
even billions years old.
Of course a billion years
is a thousand million.
So you know your
looking at a very
ancient type rock. 
And the fascination
with me for rocks 
has always been
wondering how they were
formed? And then
why they were formed like they are? 
Why do they look like
they do? And so forth.
Through studying that you can
get a pretty good grasp on
that.
The basic type rocks, 
sedimentary, metamorphic
or igneous.
That pretty much
tells you then how they're
formed and so forth.
Of course each section 
of the country or
the state has different
rock formations
So that is interesting too.
to study how that
came about.
There is many many
facets to rock
hounding. There is 
not only the collecting
and the studying. 
But then you get into
the jewelry and
all the fascinating
collections that people delve
into.
I think that most people learn
about geology 
and how ancient
this world is. 
The more they realize
the advances that man 
has made the knowledge
that he has gained.
Of course the more you
start to study something the
more involved you become.
It's a life long
pursuit of knowledge 
that you can enter
into in the study of
geology and rocks.
Plus you can gain a lot
of personal relationships
with people that have
the same interest.
I know my journey
through life studying 
rocks and minerals has
led to meet
countless encounters
with people I'll never forget.
Just rich personal
experiences.
Hey Dave how's it going?
Going absolutely wonderfully.
Good. How is the wizard doing today? 
Well the wizard's doing pretty
good.
Have you been able to
answer all the questions?
Well so far maybe.
Well that's a promising start. 
This is
a long standing member
of our club Dave Moe.
Hi there. He has 
some beautiful rocks
for sale here. Say I have
a couple of things here.
I think you might truly be 
interested in. What I have here
is
fossilized coral geodes
20-30 million years old. 
Often times they will
come in a nodule like
this and when you
cut them apart you 
will find the beauty
of the agatized coral itself.
This one here when you
first find it you might
classify it as a nodule. 
You notice that there is
no sign of any formation on the
inside. Well once you cut 
you find the true beauty
that mother nature 
has provided for us.
This is agatized coral.
The two halves here would have
been polished.
Right here we have
a ancient fossilized piece of
seabed with the clams
as it existed
in the Plyocene
or late Myocene period or
about 3 million years ago.
This is the ancient seabed 
and these are the
fossilized clams. 
You might note
that the body of the clams
are filled with a golden
calcite
And it is thought that it is 
the only place in the world
were this golden calcite has
filled
the body of the clam. 
One of the few and
only fossilized clam bed of
this nature
that I know of.
There are some wonderful
specimens Dave. 
Well thank you very much.
The wizard is always
somebody I rely
upon. You know he makes life
so much easier for me.
and all the other 
vendors here so.
And the club members. 
Well Thank you.
I appreciate that. 
Beautiful display
Dave. Thank you very much.
We'll see you later.
Right here we have some 
display cases set up
and these two cases 
here happen to be mine
part of my rock collection.
I might explain that
rocks are different
than minerals. Rocks
are made of minerals 
and minerals
are made from elements.
So there is a distinct difference 
between a rock and
a mineral. For the most part
to most people rocks are not
that
interesting because 
they don't display
the beauty that minerals do 
in as much as crystals
or agate formations
and things like that.
But they are very
interesting to me and
I think once people start
studying rocks they
would become more
interested. I have two examples
here
of rocks that are 
among the oldest
that are found on the earth.
The first is a Morton Gneiss
which is technically called a
Migmatite. The Gneiss is a
form of a metamorphic rock
that was taken down
into the earth or
subducted and
became subject to
remelting under tremendous
heat and pressure and
recrystalized
to form a Migmatite.
And this Migmatite
has been dated at
3.5 billion years
old. 3.5 billion.
The next one is Ely Greenstone.
And Ely Greenstone is about
2.7 billion years old.
It's a form of basaltic lava
that spewed 
out of a volcano
which happened 
to be under the ocean.
on the floor of the seabed.
The Ely Greenstone then became
subject to changes through
pressure
heat and water and so forth.
It turned from a
basaltic lava into
what they call Ely Greenstone.
Which is metamorphic
form
of the previous. 
Ely Greenstone is
has been very much 
associated with iron mining
and iron formations.
Okay over here
we have a case of
Thomsonite. This is a
actually a zeolitic mineral.
And it actually occurs
all over the world but is
pretty
famous here in Minnesota
because of the potential
for making jewelry. 
And it's a
little air bubbles and so forth
in
gas bubbles in basalt.
That filled up with a mineral
and crystallized and
made the Thomsonites.
And these occur up around
Grand Marais on the North
Shore.
And this is a really 
beautiful excellent display
by Mr Wayne Nelson.
My name
is Wayne Nelson and
I'm a rock hound.
I consider myself 
a collector of God's art.
I have a lot of Thomsonite
which is found in Minnesota. 
A lot of calfs
Some of the calfs are from
Mexico and Montana agate.
Have a lot of 
different minerals, Flourites.
I kind of specialize in
Rajaliegh Flourite in England
It's a highly fluorescent
mineral.
And I also like to collect
Amethyst from around the world.
My favorite is Amethyst for
Uruguay
and I have that over on the
sands over there.
Any agates I like to
cut and polish them.
And crystals are fun.
I want to show the Labordorite
over here. 
This comes
from Madagascar. 
And it's
very high flash
they way they cut and polish.
This on this end is a darker
base and a different flash.
On this end
it's a lighter
Labordorite and the flash
is little bit different.
And then in the front here
we have a design 
what they call the flame
you can see the
different angles
It looks like a flame on a
candle.
And you get that in the
sunlight
the different angles the 
flash just jumps out at you.
My favorite
to work is Thomsonite and
this particular
Thomsonite here
it's unique because
it has copper inclusion in it.
But I look for the eyes
in Thomsonite.
As I said this purple
that's telling me 
there's copper inside.
You really don't see
it until you polish it.
Now all of these
I'll polish on a diamond wheel
by hand.
Real beautiful ones have
nice greens to them.
And there's that
green eye with a red center.
And a little
black eye on there
on the edge.
But it is nice green.
This is what Thomsonite
looks like after you pull it
out
or extract it from the Basalt. 
And you really can't
see anything in there.
I did polish
a portion of this one.
to show people
what it looks like
after you extract
it and start polishing it.
It's like looking at a
flower that's just in bud form.
and then it opens up to show
it's beauty. And getting
all of this
outside material off and 
you see the beauty of it.
Many people do no not know that
Thomsonite is the Minnesota
state gem stone.
Thomsonite is found along
the North Shore between Lutsen
and Grand Marias. 
It can go
back in half a mile
or so away from the lake. 
You can find it in the lake
also.
You will find some Thomsonite
over on the Michigan 
side of Lake Superior
but I don't believe it's
as colorful as the Minnesota
Thomsonite.
And all Thomsonite
elsewhere in the world is
white.
So this is the only place
in the world that you
are going to find
this colorful gemstone
is in Minnesota.
machine running
machine running
machine running
Down on his end of our show
we have a couple of rock saws
set up and we can
cut people's rocks for
them for a modest
charge. Let them see 
what's inside the rock
and these are diamond saw blades
It's kind of a slow process
cutting rock. It usually
it probably takes
15 minutes or more to cut a
rock.
And a saw blade runs
in oil to keep it
cool. So it allows
people to get a rock cut
if they want one cut.
I'm going to clean it up.
So the cleaning process
is put it in floor dry
and I get the other half out.
Oh just
This one is really nice.
and I'm going
throwing it in the floor dry
That's going to be nice rock.
The floor dry just gets rid
of some of the oil.
Then the next step
is just soap water.
It almost looks
like there is a skeleton
or something in it.
Hand it off to the owner.
Thank you.
That's a very nice rock.
I love it.
Another one that I had cut 
for somebody else.
An event like this 
gives a chance for
people to come 
and see something
that they may have
never experienced before.
And many people today
have told me that
this is the first time that they 
have come. They just couldn't
believe what is going on here
with
all these rocks 
and beautiful stuff
and jewelry and specimens.
Most people say 
well I'll definitely
come back.
And for me personally
as being the wizard of rocks,
it's delightful for me 
because I'm seeing
kids that are 15, 16 years
old or more, 
that came to me
years ago and I gave 
them a free rock and
it's inspired them. 
And most of these
little kids are just really 
sharp when it comes
to rocks. They know
what an agate is
and they hunt them.
A good many of them
have a strong desire
to really know about rocks.
To me that is very fulfilling.
I have had no 
formal training in rocks.
Only just what I've
picked up and learned on my
own.
But I've been a very diligent
student and still am.
There's a
vast world of knowledge 
that I don't think
a person could ever
fully comprehend.
I mean it's such
a vast subject that
I encourage all the young
people
to get into it.
Hello Joan! 
How's it going.
are you finding lots of 
good stuff today? Oh of course
I just need more money.
That's always the problem. 
More money.
Beautiful though. 
I love it
this Turquoise.
These people here are
members of our club.
Chuck is a facetor.
He makes the really 
beautiful stuff. Faceting.
This is an example of
fasceting.
Where the rock is
actually faceted into facets.
He does beautiful work.
crowd chattering in background
crowd chattering in background
crowd chattering in background
crowd chattering in background
I'm Chuck Durnan 
and I'm what the
gem and mineral hobby
calls a facetor.
A man who facets gemstones
and cuts gemstones.
Facetor means that you are 
putting individual angles on
the stone.
My dad
exposed me to the hobby
when I was a kid.
I was about 6 years old and
I sat next to him watching him
cut
a belt buckle stone.
A 30 by 40
Cabochon that goes 
into a belt buckle.
I still do those today. 
It's something that
has stayed with me over the years.
My wife's uncle did the same
thing. Exposed her to the hobby 
in the same way.
It's been a lifelong experience
It's a lifelong hobby. My grandson 
is now interested
Those things are extremely important
to us to pass this hobby
along to all the club members.
and to all the general public that 
is interested in it. We want to
foster the interest in this.
Earth Sciences are something
that as we continue to 
use up the iron ore
and the aluminum and all these kind of things.ppAs we continue to run out
of deposits of gemstones. We have
to be out there searching
for more, finding more. 
Fortunately the earth is always
making more.
Lava spews from the earth.
We get gemstones from 
some of the lava vents.
Different minerals collect in these areas. 
They collect in the hollow
parts.
They just become 
another source of
material for us.
As hobbyists and
jewelers and
people can wear and enjoy.
As a member of the 
Cuyuna Rock Gem and Mineral
Club,
I find that it is very interesting
to talk with other
people about what they 
do and how they cut
stones and what kind of 
stones they cut. As far as I
know
there is only myself as
a facetor and one other
gentleman that is just
learning to facet right now.
Most of them are 
rock hounds that
enjoy going out 
and picking up rocks.
Looking for agates and
looking for stones and stuff.
Don't ever go into somebody's
private land and expect to just
walk over there and start
picking up
stones from their property. 
Tends to make them a
little bit aggravated. The same as it would
if you were a hunter trying to
hunt on their
property. The club 
itself is made up of
a whole lot of different people.
Most of them are
retirement age, but not all. 
Since we started doing
our club show down in Brainerd. 
We found that there is
an interest in the gem, and
mineral
and rock hobbies, 
the earth sciences
enough to start attracting 
some young families.
Most of the high school kids
and the grade school kids 
especially the grade school kids
are so open to what's going
on in their world.
We even have a couple of the club
members that regularly go out
to grade schools and high
schools
and put on a program about 
gem and minerals and rocks.
hunting and that kind of thing.
It's really and educational
thing for the kids that get the
opportunity to have them come.
Certainly is available to any
school
that are within a decent driving distance.ppOur area down there
toward Brainerd, out club
actually meets in Crosby.
So if you are within that area 
and you would like to have some
club member come
and talk, just get a hold
of some members of the club
and we'll be happy to
set that up and try to 
work with you to get the kids
more involved. If you
have the opportunity
and would like to come and
visit
at one of our shows. 
Our show is held
annually in Brainerd and
it's always the first weekend
of May. You'll have
the opportunity to visit
with club members and
even people from outside of
our club that come and
display some of these
special rocks that they've collected
over the years. The knowledge
that you gain by going to a
gem and mineral or gem, rock and 
mineral show whatever you want
to call it.
There are so many 
beautiful things to look at
and there is so many
beautiful rocks in the world.
It's just really amazing
because they are always
finding new ones. They're always
finding different things in
the mountains
that haven't been discovered before
and that turn out to be actual
gorgeous, beautiful stones.
The thing is
that what happens at these
gem and mineral shows
are just an awful lot of 
knowledge that's there.
There is so many things 
that are known
about rocks and geology
and the history of the earth
and
all that kind of stuff.
It gets imparted to 
people at that show.
You get an opportunity to stop 
and talk and visit with the
various
dealers that are there. We're not 
there just to sell our product.
We're there to actually educate the public. ppLet the public know what
are hobby is all about.
Something that you can't
take away from me is the joy 
that I get when I actually
get this stone
finished if I ever do.
Thank you so much for watching. 
Join us again next week for
part 2
of rock hounds with 
gem cutter, Chuck Durnan.
IF you have an idea for a
Common Ground piece that
pertains to
north central Minnesota email
us at
legacy@lptv.org
or call us at 
218-333-3014.
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