speaking of rare finds…
does anyone have any Ellensberg Blue? It’s a type of stone that
formed out of the materials that St. Helens blew sky high. I
have a few stones, mostly uncut, but am interested in more…
thanks for your time!
The only Ellensburg Blue I’ve ever heard about is from the area
of the town of that name in eastern Washington State, a bit too
far from Mt. St. Helens to have been involved. There, (and here
in Seattle), the term Ellensberg Blue refers to a more normally
formed and naturally occuring type of agate. The stuff I’ve seen
ranges from a barely perceptible blueish tinge in the greyish
white agate, to a medium light blue that’s really quite unusual
for an agate, about comparible with the depth of color of a
decent aquamarine, only maybe a bit darker and greyer. The main
examples I’ve seen are in a park Service Museum display over on
the east side of the Cascades at the petrified Ginko site, right
where I-90 crosses the Columbia river gorge. there may, of
course, be a wider range of colors, but even what I saw was a
pretty impressive bit of light blue agates… And I can tell you
that at least THIS material has absolutely nothing to do with Mt.
St. Helens.
I might also mention that there is a very wide range of products
sold that purport to be associated with Mt. St. Helens and/or
it’s ash. You can get some very pretty tsavorite green color
facetted “stones”, for example, purported to be made from Mt. St.
Helens glass. The glass is supposed to have been made from the
volcanic ash… Well, it’s glass, all right. The trick to it
is managing to get enough ash into the melt so you can call it
Mt. St. helens glass, without getting so much ash in it to mess
up the glass. The ash is basically not compatible with glass,
being a basaltic ash with almost no silica. It has nothing to do
with the color of that glass… On a somewhat more ethical
note, there are several (I think) lines of craft objects and
small sculptures which are made from a mix of resins and the ash,
pressed like any other molding material into molds and then sold
as small collectible sculptures. A couple of vendors in the
Seattle Pikes Place market have been selling such items happily
for years. And so it goes. Whether someone has come up with
some other such item to make from the ash, and calls it
ellensberg blue, I can’t say. But to the best of my knowlege,
the name has already been taken…
Hope this helps.
Peter Rowe
Jessie, Olympic Mountain Gems carries Ellensburg Blue. Brace
yourself…it’s not cheap. They list it in their cab rough
section. http://www.omgems.com
-Pete-
I don’t have any, but I want to go looking for some. I live
about 4 hours travel time from the area but I don’t know what to
look for. One fellow showed me some blue agate and another
showed me a blue jasper stone…which one? Both? Also have seen
blue jasper from the Walker Valley site in Skaget Co. I have
some geodes from there…
Michael Murphy
Please tell us more about how E-blue was formed? I have a few
small pieces of good Ellensburg Blue but do not know the history
of the agate. Someone is Melting the sand and adding something to
it to make it a green color. Marketing as Mt St. Helens Emerald I
think…but never heard anything about the mountain having to do
with E-blue.
Thanks
Kemp
Second R-M-G auction is on its way.
http://www.valint.net/chp/treasure/index.htm
I have some Ellensburg blue. I don’t want to give it up, but my
step-fathers ex-inlaws (sounds like the start of a soap opera)
use to have some property in Ellensburg, Wash…needless to say
they have a lot of blues. They have been around long before St.
Helens blew. They are an agate that comes in a variety of blue
the most prevalent is a lighter blue with a pink hue. I have
seen them faceted, very interesting stone. Very beautiful. My
step-dad may have some he is willing to sell. I will need to
contact him to find out. You can e-mail me off Orchid at
@Linda_Crawford.
Linda Crawford
Linda Crawford Designs
If someone has marketed the material from Mt St Helens which was
then formed by man into a glass as “Ellensburg Blue”–that is a
problem. Ellensburg blue is a particular type of chalcedony from
Ellensburg Washington that is an even translucent blue which
demands a premium for the material. Most likely you have a
trade-named man-made glass and the trade name they gave it was
ellensburg blue. There are a number of companies that still
market the Mt St Helens glass rough and finished–but I will
have to check to get you a name–someone else may have a name.
Al Gilbertson
I know of a couple stores here in Ellensburg, Wash that would
love to sell you some overpriced pieces of this agate but I
don’t think you want that. If you feel like visiting a real cow
town come on down and go rock hunting in the hills and mountains
surrounding the Kittitas Valley. If you’ve lived in the area
like I have you hear lots of talk about finding chunks o’ blue.
I don’t have any but I haven’t looked much. Some people swear
they find blues sitting on the side of the road or out in fields
right around town. I guess this would be the place to find them
but I doubt they are easy to find. If any one is in the central
washington area stop by and say hi.
Jeff Cleveland aka JevFro
Recently I checked some sky blue bangles & cabochons. The
dealer told me those are blue chalcedony. But I found out the
characters of the merchandise are RI=1.53 SG=2.57 none
fluorescence in LW & SW. The FTIR spectrum is the same as
glass. The dealer showed me some fibrous-like inclusions of the
stones. In fact those are caused by devitrification. I
suggest to check the properties of the stones first then we can
discuss. I can check for you for free! Ten