calsfoundation@cals.org
March 3, 2009
A quartz belt measuring up to forty miles wide runs through the Ouachita Mountains into Oklahoma. The mineral has been mined since the early 1800s, with modern mining beginning in 1930. Garland County, where the photo of this massive piece of quartz was taken in 1958, is just one of the counties through which this belt runs. In 1967, quartz was designated the official state mineral.