I Sell Rocks
April 25, 2023
“Sales. Say that five times fast.”
“Sales, sales, sales, sales, sales,” I replied to Lance, my boss, with a witty grin on my face. We both chuckled for a moment.
“Smartass,” he replied back. The words were followed by some chuckles and a sigh. “I’m going to take my lunch break. If you need anything give me a call, or don’t.” He walked out the front door without stopping at the fridge underneath the counter. This meant that he hadn’t packed his lunch this morning. He would have to drive into town to get food and I would have the shop to myself. Being alone in the shop was either a therapeutic event or would put you in danger of being caught sleeping on the job.
Located in the Black Hills, just outside of Custer, Ken’s Minerals consists of about five different sections. Each section contains a different variation of stone, shape, shine, or formation. Anything from agates to amethyst; spheres to selenite towers.
One of the most expensive types of rocks in the shop are the Fairburn agates. They range in cost anywhere from five to five thousand USD. The variation in price is due to the size and quality. The particular agate that is priced at five thousand dollars was purchased at an auction. It is from the Walton collection; a prestigious collection of Fairburn agates. The agate is huge. Now when I mean huge I mean it in Fairburn terms. The most common size of agate to find is no bigger than a pebble. Quarter size is when the price starts to reach into the hundreds. The agate from the Walton collection takes up your whole hand. However, the size isn’t the only thing that makes an agate of great quality. Fairburns are also renowned for their banding. The banding on agates are lines of silica minerals that are formed due to sedimentary conditions. The quality of banding is determined by how fine the bands are, the contrast in color of the bands, and the number of bands present. Normally a Fairburn will have fine banding on one or two sides of the rock, but the banding isn’t very large. Now the banding on the agate from the Walton collection has 360 degree banding with highly contrasting bands of gray, white, and black. All Fairburns are truly one of a kind but the one from the Walton collection is simply miles above the rest. It is any collector's dream.
The shop, Ken’s Minerals, is currently on its fourth generation of owners. It all started in 1936 when a drought forced a farmer to seek out other options for income. So he decided to start selling items to tourists of the area. Kenneth Spring Sr. is the son of the aforementioned farmer. Kenneth was seen as one of the best rock hounds in the world. He collaborated with several different magazines and was even on Good Morning, America. Sadly Ken Sr. died in 2007. When Ken Sr. retired he gave the shop to his son, Ken Jr., who in turn gave it to his sons, Matt and Lance. Matt and Lance now keep the shop open from the start of April till the end of October. Ken’s has been running over 80 years for no small reason. It is geared to feed off of the tourism machine.
In 2020, during the middle of a pandemic, South Dakota had just over 12 million visitors according to the South Dakota tourism industry. There is a never ending need for the escape from the burdens of society. The average way of life has been damaged. People need to take breaks to return to the nature that they belong to. They are trapped in a dystopian world of giant ruthless cities. Families seek to take a break and find solace in the towering pines of the Black Hills. Especially during the madness that was 2020.
During 2020 lockdowns were in full effect in many states. South Dakota, however, decided to remain open. The fact that we had remained open drew in countless families and nomads alike both seeking refuge from the way the world was at the time. When the George Floyd riots happened, a mother made the journey all the way from Minneapolis. The surprising fact was that she had brought her kids along with her to keep them safe and away from the madness that was destroying the city. Throughout that week many of the people I talked to were running from the riots. I would ask them about it and they would just sigh and shrug or talk about how they never saw something like that happening. The mother and three kids ended up buying something small before heading back to their campsite, promising to come back under more normal circumstances. It was almost like they were apologizing for only being here because they felt forced out of their home. Precisely the way an uninvited house guest would. She somehow managed to gather all her children and leave promptly with another quick unnecessary apology.
Photos from Ken's Minerals: www.kensminerals.com
One of the things that I remember Lance telling me while working there is, “Everyone has a story, and most people want to tell that story.” He told me this after the family of the late Jessi Combs, holder of the female land speed record and a Black Hills native, had visited the shop. Combs died in a crash while trying to break the land speed record in 2019. She was given the record posthumously. There are other stories too. Ones with names I don’t remember. An older woman, recently divorced, from Florida living in a dark purple van with an equally small amount of chipped paint and rust. She was heading to Seattle to stay with her daughter. Not using any map and just letting the roads take her to where she needed to go. When she finally reached Seattle she called the shop and let us know that she made it. Many others visited. The average Joe, the foreigners, and during the Sturgis motorcycle rally, the bikers. They all are different, but they all have a story.
Most of the others that came into the shop had a condition that my boss would refer to as “mytightass”. They would always want to get out of the shop with the smallest bill possible. Through my research I have found that this condition disproportionately affects old white men. It becomes irreversible once they try to bargain with you about the price of something that is quite literally, set in stone. The old men were my favorite though because they knew the value of these rocks.
Most of the people are drawn to the rocks in the shop that are shiny and flashy or were carved into a unique pattern or shape. Nearly all of the time these specimens are doctored to look a certain way. I, on the other hand, prefer a more natural rock. Sure a rock that has been shaped to look like a turtle is interesting, but natural rocks are able to tell a story.
Each rock is different in its construction. There is a certain aura to a rock that hasn’t been altered by human hands. They radiate a sense of broad individualism. When you take a rock and alter its shape you take away part of its uniqueness. If you then choose to shine that rock into something that is eye-catching, it becomes more altered and loses more originality. The drive toward progress and perfection that humans possess unintentionally ruins its natural beauty. Not only does the blind pursuit of perfection ruin the natural state of the mineral or fossil, it takes away the particular rarity of rocks that were naturally given a brilliant luster or thought provoking shape.
By making everything the same, it takes away the understanding of just how immensely diverse geology can be.
The way I see it rocks and people aren’t totally different. Everyone is so obsessed with the perfection of self image that they don’t even realize that the real treasure is individuality.
| Photo from Ken's Minerals: www.kensminerals.com |