Along with his wife Joy, Harry purchased the Royal Peacock Opal Mine. By 1944, he realized that these sparkling specimens they had found were opals, and there in fact was an opal mine in the area. The reason? Harry and other ranchers would uncover mysterious glimmering stones and trade them for a shot of whiskey here or there.Įventually, Harry purchased a homestead, working massive cattle operations in Oregon and California, but spent a lot of time in Virgin Valley, Nevada. Originally a buckaroo in southeastern Idaho and northwestern Nevada, Royal Peacock owner Harry Wilson spent the majority of his time in the field, eventually turning into somewhat of a rockhounding hobbyist. Since then, the mine has been open to the public as a pay-to-dig mine, and has produced extremely rare and beautiful Nevada opals for countless visitors.
The Royal Peacock Opal mine has been a family affair since officially opening for business in 1981. Heat and pressure then formed a silica gel that percolated through the ash and filled various cavities, which over time, eventually hardened into a spectacular variety of opals. An ancient lake covered most of the area, which was filled by a tremendous amount of volcanic ash, which covered an abundance of limbs, twigs, and other rotting woods. These unique and magnificent gems were produced nearly 14 million years ago, when volcanic activity was high in the region. Other varieties of opal can be found in Virgin Valley, including pink, white, moss, and lemon, but the star of the show here is of course the black fire opal. However, present-day visitors to the Royal Peacock can still hunt for opals via bank digging, hand-tooling, or raking through mine tailings in search of undiscovered bounties. Gone are the days when buckaroo prospector Harry Wilson would uncover glimmering stones and trade them for shots of whiskey at Nevada saloons. Even rarer is the kaleidoscopic kind found only in Virgin Valley, Nevada (the Virgin Valley black fire opal), which is why it’s Nevada’s official gemstone. Very few places in the world produce this extremely rare and mysterious semi-precious gemstone, and the Royal Peacock Opal Mine in Nevada is one of them. But were they black fire opals? Less likely. It’s possible you’ve had the pleasure of gazing at an opal or two.
Scarce Gems at the Royal Peacock Opal Mine in Nevada
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