The tiny town of Mount Ida is home to rock shops, you-dig quartz mines, and national forest trails.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Tucked away in west-central Arkansas' Ouachita Mountains, Mount Ida is a literal hidden gem, a tiny town that got its nickname — the "Quartz ...

Some modern-day prospectors make thousands of dollars selling precious stones they dug up themselves. By Alexandra Marvar Moonstones in Montana, amethyst and emeralds in North Carolina, garnet and ...

MOUNT IDA — In and around Mount Ida, the identity of the official Arkansas State Mineral can be guessed just by looking around. In fact (pun alert!), the laureate is crystal-clear from billboards and ...

In and around Mount Ida, the identity of the official Arkansas State Mineral can be guessed just by looking around. In fact -- pun alert! -- the laureate is crystal-clear from billboards and other ...

Excited screams filled the air as two of my sons jumped from the platform and plunged downward into the mine below. Within minutes, they dropped several hundred feet and had traveled over a half-mile ...

The invention of the computer is often articulated like a three-act play: the idea of the computer arrives, then there is the process of how to make the computer and, finally, there is the creation.

As I turned yet another shovelful of dirt, I thought about a comment made long ago by the millionaire, Andrew Carnegie: “Men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons ...

Even before the pandemic sent people searching for road trip destinations and outdoor adventure, interest in prospecting and rockhounding (or “fossicking,” as it is called in Britain and Australia) ...

Moonstones in Montana, amethyst and emeralds in North Carolina, garnet and quartz in upstate New York. At pay-to-dig mines around the United States, visitors can paw through piles of mine tailings to ...