Ledge Agate, Keweenaw Agate or Brockway Mountain Agate
SISU is a Finish word we hear often in the Upper Peninsula. It means going beyond ones’ Mental or Physical threshold. Most Lake Superior Agates are fairly easy to harvest, but Keweenaw Ledge agates require quite a bit of digging, pounding, and more digging and pounding work, to obtain. They require a lot of SISU to harvest.
On a previous blog (circa 2013) I showed the adventures digging ledge agates from the base of Brockway Mountain. A type of paint Lake Superior Agate, found mostly south of Copper Harbor, and not well known. I found a pocket of red chunks of agate in a secret hole. When I got home, I put these buckets of Keweenaw Agate in my barn to work on “later” and they rose to the top when Bonnie was cleaning and neatening out there recently. I didn’t have time to work with them right away, but one piece was so unusual it went right to the saw. Of the many Ledge Agates I have cut and seen, I have not seen one like this agate. Ledge Agates are pretty unique, but this one goes beyond unique
Keweenaw Agates are generally opaque with a porcelain surface, and little or no fortification banding. This particular agate had those attributes, and also eyes surrounded by red agate. The base color of the agate is reddish, but it also had green in it, indicating a chlorite deposition in the agate. I cut it and made a pendant as you can see here. I am hopeful that as I rummage through these buckets of seam agate I will find other nice pieces from this lucky pocket.
It took 5 or 6 years to show you Keweenaw Agate from this hunt, but hopefully I’ll find more good stuff to show you later. I probably missed some of the nuances in this stone. Feel free to comment at whatever link source you got here from.
Read More:
video of rock huntint the Keweenaw Agate: https://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/category/keweenaw-peninsula/