How crystals boomed in popularity, fed a micro industry in Arkansas, and spurred a sustainability movement.
The crystals for sale at Richard Wegner’s rock shop rest inside a weathered taupe barn in Mount Ida, Arkansas.
Tables laden with quartz, amethysts, obsidian and orange citrine greet visitors as they approach the building. Hunks of clear quartz as big as an adult’s torso brace against the tables’ legs. The quartz flares red, yellow and orange with inclusions: bits of other minerals that were trapped inside as the rocks crystallized. Just past the barn is the mine where customers dig their own crystals.
Dig-your-own mines and shops dot the hills of western Arkansas. Along some stretches of highway, they’re as common as gas stations. Still, Wegner’s Quartz Crystal Mines stands out as one of the few attempting to operate sustainably.
Tables laden with quartz, amethysts, obsidian and orange citrine greet visitors as they approach the building. Hunks of clear quartz as big as an adult’s torso brace against the tables’ legs. The quartz flares red, yellow and orange with inclusions: bits of other minerals that were trapped inside as the rocks crystallized. Just past the barn is the mine where customers dig their own crystals.
Dig-your-own mines and shops dot the hills of western Arkansas. Along some stretches of highway, they’re as common as gas stations. Still, Wegner’s Quartz Crystal Mines stands out as one of the few attempting to operate sustainably.
Signs like these are not uncommon in Mount Ida, which calls itself the quartz capital of the world. (Alice Berry)
Located on Wegner Crystal Ranch Road, the mine is a mecca for crystal hunters. Cars and trucks overflow the parking lot. Equipped with small tools, kids sift for crystal treasure in a sandbox. The shop itself is graying, as though humbled by the glittering gems inside. Its drabness heightens the rocks’ sparkle.
Wegner opened his business in 1980 after discovering the property he bought in Mount Ida sat on a crystal deposit. An Illinois native, he moved to Arkansas from Chicago to be more in touch with the natural world.
“My spirituality blossomed when I moved to Arkansas, because I’m communing with nature, and nature’s perfect,” Wegner said. A bug crawled on the sleeve of his T-shirt. He smiled and left it undisturbed.
He wanted to avoid “being a drain on the environment” — to keep nature perfect. That, for him, meant seeking out the guidance of the Ouachita, a Native American group that historically lived along its namesake river. Wegner and the tribe “took” to one another: the tribe eventually inducted him as an honorary member and, he said, showed him how to be a steward of the land.
Mining rips open the land. It can create permanent scars and contaminate nearby bodies of water. Wegner diminishes adverse effects with solar panels lined neatly outside his barn. They are supplemented by wind turbines nearby, which sit hidden behind the summer trees. In May, the leaves are a gem-like green. Wegner farms his own food and donates what he doesn’t eat to a local food bank. He also engages in reclamation, a process by which exhausted mines are filled with soil and swiftly covered by vegetation. The process prevents erosion and water contamination.
“It’s unfortunate that so many businesses are worried about money in the bank. They don’t see the long picture, where if they pay forward and do the right thing, abundance will come,” Wegner said. He speaks of crystals almost as if they were a crop he’s harvesting instead of minerals he’s extracting.
Wegner is a rare man. But Arkansas is known far and wide by geologists and collectors for the quality and abundance of its crystals. Interest in Arkansas crystals has only grown as using the rocks for their supposed healing properties becomes mainstream. Crystals aren’t just for hippies anymore: they abound in gift stores and online retailers.
The industry has grown, in the U.S. and throughout the world, with little regard to its challenges. Mining crystals can ruin landscapes, leaving farmland infertile and contaminating bodies of water. Miners themselves often work in unsafe conditions for little pay, according to experts. And the industry lacks regulation, making it difficult for business owners and consumers to address these problems themselves.
Wegner opened his business in 1980 after discovering the property he bought in Mount Ida sat on a crystal deposit. An Illinois native, he moved to Arkansas from Chicago to be more in touch with the natural world.
“My spirituality blossomed when I moved to Arkansas, because I’m communing with nature, and nature’s perfect,” Wegner said. A bug crawled on the sleeve of his T-shirt. He smiled and left it undisturbed.
He wanted to avoid “being a drain on the environment” — to keep nature perfect. That, for him, meant seeking out the guidance of the Ouachita, a Native American group that historically lived along its namesake river. Wegner and the tribe “took” to one another: the tribe eventually inducted him as an honorary member and, he said, showed him how to be a steward of the land.
Mining rips open the land. It can create permanent scars and contaminate nearby bodies of water. Wegner diminishes adverse effects with solar panels lined neatly outside his barn. They are supplemented by wind turbines nearby, which sit hidden behind the summer trees. In May, the leaves are a gem-like green. Wegner farms his own food and donates what he doesn’t eat to a local food bank. He also engages in reclamation, a process by which exhausted mines are filled with soil and swiftly covered by vegetation. The process prevents erosion and water contamination.
“It’s unfortunate that so many businesses are worried about money in the bank. They don’t see the long picture, where if they pay forward and do the right thing, abundance will come,” Wegner said. He speaks of crystals almost as if they were a crop he’s harvesting instead of minerals he’s extracting.
Wegner is a rare man. But Arkansas is known far and wide by geologists and collectors for the quality and abundance of its crystals. Interest in Arkansas crystals has only grown as using the rocks for their supposed healing properties becomes mainstream. Crystals aren’t just for hippies anymore: they abound in gift stores and online retailers.
The industry has grown, in the U.S. and throughout the world, with little regard to its challenges. Mining crystals can ruin landscapes, leaving farmland infertile and contaminating bodies of water. Miners themselves often work in unsafe conditions for little pay, according to experts. And the industry lacks regulation, making it difficult for business owners and consumers to address these problems themselves.
Booming interest, booming industry
Demand for crystals has ballooned over the last 10 years. Their proponents claim that crystals promote spiritual as well as physical health. The consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimated in 2021 that the global wellness industry — of which crystals are a part — is worth $1.5 trillion, with an annual growth rate between 5% and 10%. The International Monetary Fund projects that overall global economic growth, meanwhile, will slow to 3.6% between 2022 and 2023. Crystals, along with other spiritual practices, have become mainstream.
Searches for “crystal healing near me” surged 450% in the U.S. since 2017, according to data from Google Trends. That’s thanks in part to the popularization of other spiritual practices, like yoga and astrology. Online guides from sites like Yoga Basics instruct readers on how to incorporate healing crystals into their yoga routines. Articles assign different crystals to each zodiac sign.
Searches for “crystal healing near me” surged 450% in the U.S. since 2017, according to data from Google Trends. That’s thanks in part to the popularization of other spiritual practices, like yoga and astrology. Online guides from sites like Yoga Basics instruct readers on how to incorporate healing crystals into their yoga routines. Articles assign different crystals to each zodiac sign.
The COVID-19 pandemic may also have contributed to the explosive growth in the market. Searches for “crystals for manifesting” grew 550% in the U.S. since March 2020, and the New York Times, Washington Post and the Guardian reported on the increased interest. Crystal websites claim that milky lavender kunzite dissolves negativity, that aventurine can inspire independence, that amber provides soothing energy. All of these are enticing in an anxious age, especially as consumer spending is up, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Interest in Arkansas quartz has risen accordingly. A 2021 New York Times article on collecting crystals recommends that readers go to Arkansas. Arkansas is known worldwide for its quartz, according to the Arkansas Geological Survey, and draws both collectors and scientists. Even the Arkansas tourism website promises that visitors will prize the “energy properties” of the quartz they find in the state.
A January 2022 commodity report from the United States Geological Survey shows that Arkansas is one of the top gemstone producing states. Production of natural gemstones increased, as have imports, suggesting that domestic demand is outpacing supply.
Interest in Arkansas quartz has risen accordingly. A 2021 New York Times article on collecting crystals recommends that readers go to Arkansas. Arkansas is known worldwide for its quartz, according to the Arkansas Geological Survey, and draws both collectors and scientists. Even the Arkansas tourism website promises that visitors will prize the “energy properties” of the quartz they find in the state.
A January 2022 commodity report from the United States Geological Survey shows that Arkansas is one of the top gemstone producing states. Production of natural gemstones increased, as have imports, suggesting that domestic demand is outpacing supply.
A 3-foot square of clear quartz rests on cinder blocks outside a shop just off Owley Road, one of the main streets that passes through Mount Ida. This shop is about two miles away from Wegner’s. (Alice Berry)
Arkansas crystals and Native Americans
Quartz is just one kind of crystal found in Arkansas. Between 245 and 280 million years ago, silica-rich hot water rushed over the still-forming Ouachita Mountains to fill fissures in the rock. As the water cooled, the silicon dioxide crystallized to become quartz. The first people to live in the Ouachita Mountains knew about and used the crystals for practical, decorative and ceremonial purposes, according to the Arkansas Geological Survey.
Crystal shops, mines and websites often say that Native Americans believed crystals to be sacred. Books available on Amazon and elsewhere purport to reveal the “secrets” of Native American crystal healing to interested readers.
Mary Beth Trubitt, an archaeologist at the University of Arkansas who specializes in Native American stone tools, cautions against such claims. She is an authority on the mound-building Caddos, one of the state’s major indigenous groups. The Caddos sometimes used crystals as engraving tools or arrowheads, she said. But it is clear that crystals were “more than just utilitarian objects” for them.
Other minerals used in tools are not found in their raw form the way quartz is. The fact that raw pieces of quartz are found at Native American sites indicates that indigenous groups regarded them as special. They collected them, rather than just using them.
Crystal shops, mines and websites often say that Native Americans believed crystals to be sacred. Books available on Amazon and elsewhere purport to reveal the “secrets” of Native American crystal healing to interested readers.
Mary Beth Trubitt, an archaeologist at the University of Arkansas who specializes in Native American stone tools, cautions against such claims. She is an authority on the mound-building Caddos, one of the state’s major indigenous groups. The Caddos sometimes used crystals as engraving tools or arrowheads, she said. But it is clear that crystals were “more than just utilitarian objects” for them.
Other minerals used in tools are not found in their raw form the way quartz is. The fact that raw pieces of quartz are found at Native American sites indicates that indigenous groups regarded them as special. They collected them, rather than just using them.
She herself has recovered clear quartz crystals on the floor of a Caddo mound near Caddo Valley in Clark County. She said the buildings were likely important — a priest’s or a chief’s house. Today, the mounds look like hills and might pass for such in the rolling foothills of the Ouachitas. Built up over years, they were in truth elaborate constructions which contained only the bodies of the most important leaders. These accumulated over time as the Caddos systematically constructed buildings, burned them and erected new structures on top to form a mound.
The pieces of quartz Trubitt found in the mounds were free of chips. This suggests that they were decorative or ceremonial items, valued first for their beauty and then for any other properties that may have been attributed to them, she said.
“We think they’re cool now; people thought they were cool then,” Trubitt said.
But the claims that Native Americans in Arkansas believed crystals were healing may be overblown, with one exception: scab-colored hematite, also called red ochre, is found throughout southwest Arkansas.
It “definitely” drew associations with healing, blood and death because of its hue, Trubitt said.
“We think they’re cool now; people thought they were cool then,” Trubitt said.
But the claims that Native Americans in Arkansas believed crystals were healing may be overblown, with one exception: scab-colored hematite, also called red ochre, is found throughout southwest Arkansas.
It “definitely” drew associations with healing, blood and death because of its hue, Trubitt said.
Mary Beth Trubitt displays a clear quartz arrowhead at her office in Henderson State University. The arrowhead was discovered in Garland County, of which Hot Springs is the county seat. (Alice Berry)
But she expressed greater skepticism about quartz. She believes that ideas about the health benefits of quartz cannot be entirely separated from efforts to promote the rising resort of Hot Springs and its “healing waters.”
”You get a lot of mythology” about the springs and crystals in the 19th century as white business leaders sought to attract tourists to Hot Springs. Trubitt said entrepreneurs would say that Native American tribes would gather peacefully at a particular location to drum up interest. It had little do with what indigenous peoples were actually doing in Arkansas prior to European colonization.
“I hear this living here in Arkansas, and I took a trip up to Yellowstone, and they’re telling me the same story up there, that everyone all came together in peace,” she said.
It’s more likely that Arkansas’ indigenous peoples believed that crystals were healing because they had spiritual meaning, and they viewed spiritual and physical wellbeing as inherently linked, Trubitt said.
“Certainly indigenous societies had medical knowledge, but it would have been more botanical medicines,” Trubitt said. Tribes native to Arkansas didn’t think that holding a rock up to an arthritic knee would heal it. That particular magical tale is of later origin.
”You get a lot of mythology” about the springs and crystals in the 19th century as white business leaders sought to attract tourists to Hot Springs. Trubitt said entrepreneurs would say that Native American tribes would gather peacefully at a particular location to drum up interest. It had little do with what indigenous peoples were actually doing in Arkansas prior to European colonization.
“I hear this living here in Arkansas, and I took a trip up to Yellowstone, and they’re telling me the same story up there, that everyone all came together in peace,” she said.
It’s more likely that Arkansas’ indigenous peoples believed that crystals were healing because they had spiritual meaning, and they viewed spiritual and physical wellbeing as inherently linked, Trubitt said.
“Certainly indigenous societies had medical knowledge, but it would have been more botanical medicines,” Trubitt said. Tribes native to Arkansas didn’t think that holding a rock up to an arthritic knee would heal it. That particular magical tale is of later origin.
What’s so special about Arkansas crystals?
Andy Hennebry runs a crystal shop out of his home in Mount Ida. A marquee sign calls drivers’ attention to his store as they pass through the town. When he wants to dig for quartz, he doesn’t need to go far. Just yards from his back porch is a stream that, in spring, races and tumbles, crystal clear, across flat rocks. Behind that are the woods where he collects crystals.
His front room, once a parlor, is now a showroom, where the crystals are the show. Dark wooden tables covered in cases of crystals line the walls. One box houses chunks of wavellite, a rock the color of oxidized copper, found mostly in Arkansas.
Hennebry began amassing his collection 15 years ago in order to quit smoking.
“Every time I wanted to buy cigarettes, I’d just go buy crystals,” he said. It worked. He hasn’t smoked since.
In addition to the crystals he finds in the state, he buys rocks from Brazil, Mongolia and Madagascar from wholesalers.
“I do think that [crystals] helped protect me. They helped me pay for gas and food when I was traveling,” Hennebry said. “They helped me buy this house.” He said there was something magical about this.
His collection draws tourists. A couple from Wichita, Kansas, visited his shop at the end of April only to return two weeks later. They had just finished loading their truck with milk crates full of Arkansas quartz.
His front room, once a parlor, is now a showroom, where the crystals are the show. Dark wooden tables covered in cases of crystals line the walls. One box houses chunks of wavellite, a rock the color of oxidized copper, found mostly in Arkansas.
Hennebry began amassing his collection 15 years ago in order to quit smoking.
“Every time I wanted to buy cigarettes, I’d just go buy crystals,” he said. It worked. He hasn’t smoked since.
In addition to the crystals he finds in the state, he buys rocks from Brazil, Mongolia and Madagascar from wholesalers.
“I do think that [crystals] helped protect me. They helped me pay for gas and food when I was traveling,” Hennebry said. “They helped me buy this house.” He said there was something magical about this.
His collection draws tourists. A couple from Wichita, Kansas, visited his shop at the end of April only to return two weeks later. They had just finished loading their truck with milk crates full of Arkansas quartz.
Unwashed Arkansas quartz sits outside Wegner's crystal shop. One of Wegner's employees said that people come to visit from as far away as the Dominican Republic. (Alice Berry)
Bailey McKinney, an Arkansas native who grew up digging for crystals, was surprised to see how commonplace they have become.
“It's like the quartz crystal magic trend. So many people I know are interested in quartz but they didn't know that they could dig it themselves,” McKinney said. “I can see how you would find something magical in something like that.”
Josie Yerby, the owner of Crystal Waters, a rock shop in Eureka Springs, agreed. Though she encountered her first crystal in Colorado, she said there was something special about Arkansas quartz.
“To me, they are the oversoul of the quartz soul. They are the masters,” Yerby said. Spiritualists say the oversoul is a spirit that transcends the universe to encompass everything. It “raises everything up to that next level.”
According to Yerby and other crystal proponents, quartz are amplifiers -- they magnify a person’s abilities as well as those of the crystals they own. For Yerby, Arkansas quartz are the best amplifiers around.
“It's like the quartz crystal magic trend. So many people I know are interested in quartz but they didn't know that they could dig it themselves,” McKinney said. “I can see how you would find something magical in something like that.”
Josie Yerby, the owner of Crystal Waters, a rock shop in Eureka Springs, agreed. Though she encountered her first crystal in Colorado, she said there was something special about Arkansas quartz.
“To me, they are the oversoul of the quartz soul. They are the masters,” Yerby said. Spiritualists say the oversoul is a spirit that transcends the universe to encompass everything. It “raises everything up to that next level.”
According to Yerby and other crystal proponents, quartz are amplifiers -- they magnify a person’s abilities as well as those of the crystals they own. For Yerby, Arkansas quartz are the best amplifiers around.
A shadowy industry
The wellness industry has exploded. Its rapid growth, and crystals’ place within it, means that there are few regulations. There is no equivalent to the Clean Diamond Trade Act, which implemented the Kimberley Process, a system that prohibits importing diamonds from conflict zones. Fair Trade logos proliferate on grocery store chocolate and coffee packaging. A parallel for crystals might exist.
Without it, even crystals sold in Arkansas shops may come from international conflict zones with little or no oversight.
That means crystal miners can be subject to dangerous working conditions for little pay, comparable to abuses found in other mining operations. A report from the Wilson Center, a non-partisan foreign policy research organization, found that of the 255,000 Congolese mining cobalt, 40,000 were children. Some were as young as six years old. Arkansas crystal shops buy from the Congo and other conflict zones, according to the stores’ websites.
Regardless of miners’ treatment, their work harms the environment. Laurent E. Cartier, a researcher at the University of Basel, demonstrated in a study that gemstone mining can contaminate water, erode soil and destroy landscapes.
Most gemstone mines are artisanal, meaning the miners who work there are migratory and use rudimentary production methods. There’s little incentive to prevent ecological harm when doing so harms a miner’s wallet, in Arkansas and elsewhere.
Abandoned mines collect rainwater, which can pick up toxic heavy metals and then drain into streams and other bodies of water. This can sicken aquatic life and threaten community water supply, according to the Groundwater Protection Council, a non-profit that works to ensure that groundwater supply is effectively and fairly managed.
Cartier recommends government regulation to prevent further environmental harm. He also suggested some of the measures that Wegner has already taken: mine reclamation and replanting trees, for example.
The U.S. Department of the Interior currently has a program to fund the reclamation of abandoned coal mines, but none exists for exhausted gemstone mines.
Only two of the 10 websites for Arkansas mines and rock shops mentioned sustainability. One is Avant Mining. Its site says that the owners “are committed to mining not more than one percent of our entire asset throughout the history of our operations” and that they have not constructed any new sites. Avant Mining did not respond to interview requests.
The second is Richard Wegner’s, but he acknowledged that crystal mining still harms the environment.
“Mining sustainably is kind of an oxymoron,” Wegner said, as quartz can take thousands of years to form. They are not a renewable resource. “We operate in such a way that we’re not wasteful.”
Without it, even crystals sold in Arkansas shops may come from international conflict zones with little or no oversight.
That means crystal miners can be subject to dangerous working conditions for little pay, comparable to abuses found in other mining operations. A report from the Wilson Center, a non-partisan foreign policy research organization, found that of the 255,000 Congolese mining cobalt, 40,000 were children. Some were as young as six years old. Arkansas crystal shops buy from the Congo and other conflict zones, according to the stores’ websites.
Regardless of miners’ treatment, their work harms the environment. Laurent E. Cartier, a researcher at the University of Basel, demonstrated in a study that gemstone mining can contaminate water, erode soil and destroy landscapes.
Most gemstone mines are artisanal, meaning the miners who work there are migratory and use rudimentary production methods. There’s little incentive to prevent ecological harm when doing so harms a miner’s wallet, in Arkansas and elsewhere.
Abandoned mines collect rainwater, which can pick up toxic heavy metals and then drain into streams and other bodies of water. This can sicken aquatic life and threaten community water supply, according to the Groundwater Protection Council, a non-profit that works to ensure that groundwater supply is effectively and fairly managed.
Cartier recommends government regulation to prevent further environmental harm. He also suggested some of the measures that Wegner has already taken: mine reclamation and replanting trees, for example.
The U.S. Department of the Interior currently has a program to fund the reclamation of abandoned coal mines, but none exists for exhausted gemstone mines.
Only two of the 10 websites for Arkansas mines and rock shops mentioned sustainability. One is Avant Mining. Its site says that the owners “are committed to mining not more than one percent of our entire asset throughout the history of our operations” and that they have not constructed any new sites. Avant Mining did not respond to interview requests.
The second is Richard Wegner’s, but he acknowledged that crystal mining still harms the environment.
“Mining sustainably is kind of an oxymoron,” Wegner said, as quartz can take thousands of years to form. They are not a renewable resource. “We operate in such a way that we’re not wasteful.”
Though customers come to Arkansas specifically for its quartz, crystal shop owners don’t always ask questions about where the rocks come from.
“The origins of crystals are very relevant, as each place has its own history, its own memories,” said Josie Yerby, the owner of Crystal Waters. She tries to buy from friends whom she can trust.
“I lean toward the people who are conscious,” of the environmental and ethical issues surrounding mining, Yerby said. “But I don’t always succeed.”
Many of Wegner’s crystals are locally mined, but he doesn’t think where a crystal comes from — even if it was mined by mistreated labor, or if the operation hurts the environment — irrevocably changes the crystal’s quality.
“A crystal is a tool. You can cleanse it if you know how to use it,” Wegner said. A crystal can be cleansed, or energetically purified, using saltwater or sunlight, among other methods.
Neither he nor other dealers report customers asking where the crystals come from.
“I don’t get too many questions about where they come from,” said Desiree Cooley, the owner of Desired Elements, a crystal jewelry store. “I think whatever energies and abilities the crystals are thought to carry will have those energies.” Healing is in the minds of the purchasers.
Wegner and Yerby said the same. Most crystal sellers, including Wegner and Yerby, buy from wholesalers at trade shows, who in turn source rocks from Brazil, Madagascar and China, among other countries.
For all that customers were drawn to Arkansas for its crystals, they don’t insist that what they purchase originate in the state; or else they make what is often an unwarranted assumption that the crystals bought in Arkansas are from Arkansas.
The crystals retain the healing energy derived from the earth. Even when the earth is hurting.