South Dakota’s state gem is one of the most prized collecting agates in the world, a fortification agate in sharp red, pink and grey bands found weathering out of the prairie between the Black Hills and the Badlands. They are hunted on the gravel of the old Fairburn agate beds and the surrounding grassland. Some collecting ground is PUBLIC (Buffalo Gap National Grassland), where the Forest Service allows surface collecting for your own hobby with no permit, recommends a ceiling of 25 pounds a day and 250 a year, and does not allow any of it to be sold on; much is PRIVATE ranch land, so know whose ground you are on. A single good Fairburn is a trophy.
Fairburn agate (SD state gem)
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
