About Us

I was born in Wyoming and graduated from high school in Billings, Montana. Later I went to college in Eugene, Oregon, and graduate school in Enid, Oklahoma. It was during my time in Oregon that I became highly interested in gems and minerals. In 1987 back in Montana I started faceting Montana sapphires and other gems as well. In 1993 my wife and I went full time into the gem business. We toured primarily the West Coast doing weekend gem shows, and I traveled extensively overseas exploring gem centers like Brazil, Asia, and Sri-Lanka. Our business flourished for over 15 years, but we were looking for a place to establish a permanent home and settled on Owasso, Oklahoma just outside of Tulsa.

We had previously established a working website in 1998, which later evolved into what it is today through many upgrades and other positive changes that took into account reflecting our contempt for the massive amounts of heat treated, diffused, coated, and other devious methods of gem manipulation. We have no patience for deception. In other words, we wanted a 100% natural, unenhanced gem or mineral that preferably was mined in the USA. That was when the Oregon sunstone became a major part of our business. We could go to sleep at night because we knew we had re-discovered a stunning gem that previously had flown just barely under our radar. We wanted to be able to totally assure people of what they were buying with no exceptions, and the Oregon sunstone and opal is the perfect answer.

Six years ago we began making late spring or early summer trips to the Oregon sunstone fields, which are remote, rugged, and challenging and that is putting it mildly. We spent many hot, wet, or windy days digging, jack hammering, or simply shoveling at various dig sites. We also made purchases from local claim or mine owners, and became well acquainted with most of those hard working people. We were able to accumulate a big collection of Oregon sunstones, some nice opals, and in the last few years have been building a collection of agates. Some are from the USA, and others come from mining locations around the world.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions about our products, or related gem and mineral topics. Our address is Box 1834, Owasso, Ok 74055. Contacting us via our email is the quickest way to get information, although we can be contacted through "Instant Messenger" on Facebook where I am the creator and co-admin of Agates Galore, a flourishing agates Facebook group. We try very hard to respond in a timely manner to all inquiries whether on the website or Facebook.