The excitement mounts to see who can find the biggest one. David wins, with a 10cm monster. That's what it seems to be all about. There is much pleasure in finding something beautiful in the earth, just for the effort of digging for it. That's why over 1500 people belong to some 30 lapidary or rockhound clubs around the province, and spend their weekends and vacations hunting for minerals.
Thousands more enjoy the hobby on a more casual basis.
British Columbia has a feast of material waiting to be found. There is a century of mining tradition, but for every successful mine, there are probably a hundred sites which were never viable financially, but will still yield interesting specimens. The Fraser Canyon is known for its gold, jade, garnets and jasper, but there are other great places too. Until the 1970s, iron, gold and silver mines operated within a ski pole's length of Whistler Village, and there are still lots of interesting sites near Alta Lake to hunt over. In the Salmo Valley there have been recent discoveries of blue sapphire.