A quiet Gold Rush continues in Oregon’s high desert. Serious rockhounds, weekend prospectors and people selling the state’s official gemstone are staking claims and digging for sunstones. Sunstones?

•The Spectrum Sunstone Mine is open to the general public through Oct. 20 (reservations accepted through Nov. 1). For more information, see www.highdesertgemsand ...

Did you know that Oregon has its own official state gemstone, the Oregon sunstone, designated as such in 1987? What makes it so special is that some think it has supernatural powers, and Oregon ...

PLUSH, Ore. — Out where the sagebrush hugs the sky and the antelope roam nearby, sunbeams in stones are there for the taking. “Plush diamonds” they were called by the lonesome cowboys who first ...

Prospectors started flooding into Oregon looking for gold in 1848. Modern-day miners searching for rocks that glitter can stake a claim on federal lands. Or, an aspiring claim owner with deep pockets ...