BUENA VISTA GEM WORKS ~ Photos of Nebraska and S.Dakota Fairburn Agates and Similar Agates


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Fairburn Photo Album 3

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agatepic Very pretty and colorful reservation agate.
agatepic A real nice large agate found in the Cheyenne River near Wasta, SD years ago by Betty O'Neal. Larry and Betty O'Neal lived in Illinois. He sent it to me briefly to touch up the polishing. Larry passed away a few years back and is missed in the collecting community. I am not sure who owns the agate at this point.
agatepic A Kern agate found in a bag of miscellaneous agate and sold at a mineral club auction in Denver in the '90's. This agate is about 3" long. Cost of the agate purchase? $1.00!
agatepic Another one from Kern or Pine Ridge IR!
agatepic A nice lacey Nebraska agate. ~1-1/2".
agatepic A fine little Shoemaker Canyon, SD agate.
agatepic A real nice Oelrichs, SD agate. Colors from here and Oral, SD often go to the dull golds and darker reds. ~2-1/2".
agatepic I found this agate at the Oral, SD gravel pit back last decade when it was possible to get permission to hunt there. Approx. 3-1/4 inches.
agatepic Here's a nice small black and white agate. Locality unknown.
agatepic A great little agate (about 1+ inch) I found at pasture 27 north of Crawford, NE a few years ago. I love the colors, too bad it wasn't larger. Has some bands that are sort of a yellowish-green, which is a pretty rare color.
agatepic This is an in situ sample from Antelope Springs in the Black Hills. Trade from Wayne Shortridge via Roger Clark. ~2-1/2".
agatepic Another Antelope Springs agate. This locale seems to produce a lot of bright orange.
agatepic An agate with mostly bluish-gray bands. The only way you can tell it's a Fairburn is by the outer banding; otherwise it looks like any ol' banded agate from New Mexico or somewhere else out west. Locality unknown. ~1-3/4".
agatepic This is a nicely patterned caramel-colored agate almost 2-1/2 inches long. Probably from Pine Ridge IR.
agatepic Another fine Chadron, NE agate. 2".
agatepic A great agate from Scenic, SD. About 2-1/4" x 2".
agatepic A four inch full-faced agate from Kern.
agatepic Here's a fantastic little agate brought to the Contin-Tail gem show in Buena Vista last August by Mike Parks. If I remember correctly, it was found in a parking lot in Rapid City!
agatepic The other side of the above agate. Agate is about 2" long, as I recall.
agatepic Wow! I love this agate! Doesn't it look kind of like a Laguna? This one is likely from Kern and about 1 1/2 inches long.
agatepic OK, here it is folks! The only known northwestern Colorado fairburn type agate in existence! This was found by a jeweler friend while rabbit hunting near the Yampa River in the northwest part of the state, back in the 1970's. Could there be outcrops of the Minnelusa (or it's equivalent) there? There are only two possibilities: somebody dropped it there in the boonies (highly unlikely), or it formed near there. About 6".
agatepic A nice red agate, probably from Nebraska, but not sure. 2".
agatepic Another nice Oelrichs, SD agate. ~2".
agatepic A pretty Nebraska agate, not quite 2 inches.
agatepic A very pretty burn area agate from near Tepee Canyon. Very unusual neon pink tones. I bought this from a fellow from Rapid City who was at the Buena Vista Rock Swap last year.
agatepic A typical Custer State Park agate. They usually have light colored matrix and tend toward the pastel tones a bit. They also exhibit a tendency toward large color dots in the banding.
agatepic Another Custer State Park agate. This great area has been closed to collecting for years, due mainly to selfishness on the part of a ranger who wanted the collecting there all to himself, and who was able to get legislation passed prohibiting collecting by the public.
agatepic Here's a real pretty agate, polished with one sawed end. Most people I show this to believe it's a Park agate, but it did not come with a label. About 2".
agatepic An unusual agate I found in pasture 30 north of Crawford, NE a few years ago. Almost 2" long.
agatepic A good medium-large (3") Nebraska agate. It reminds me of many that the late Bill Zeig (Alliance, NE) donated to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln museum. I haven't stopped back there in many years, hopefully they're still on display.
agatepic Part of an agate nodule sawed in two and polished, approx. 3-1/8" across with red and white pattern and a large amount of brown matrix. Typical of many agates from north of Crawford, NE.
agatepic Here's one of two agates I traded for that were collected by Larry Fields in the Yellowstone River drainage in Montana, northwest of the Black Hills. One might be a bit skeptical, but the enlargement does show some fortification banding, although in rather dull colors.
agatepic Here's the other one that's almost a cross between a Fairburn type agate and a Montana moss agate. Larry says he has found better ones, but they are buried under tons of rock and it will take him awhile to find them. He did show us pictures of a few with much better colors. If more pictures become available, I'll be sure to post them.
agatepic Interested in purchase an agate? See Agates for Sale.
agatepic Previous Fairburn Photos Albums:

Fairburn Album 1

Fairburn Photo Album 2

Come back again as I plan to add more photos as time permits.

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All photos, scans, gamma corrections, and color adjustments by Robert Spomer, unless otherwise noted.