Minnesota’s State Gemstone Is Hiding in Plain Sight Along the Lake Superior Shore

We Minnesotans are rather fond of agates. They are, of course, our official state gemstone. The world's largest Lake Superior agate (108 pounds!) can be found right here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. In fact, it's located in Moose Lake, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed "Agate Capital of the World," which holds an annual festival—Agate Days—to celebrate these fetching rocks. The Moose Lake Agate and Geological Center, at Moose Lake State Park, also offers a deep dive into these natural treasures. So, where can you go in Minnesota to find your own agates? Riverbeds, gravel pits, and pebble beaches across Minnesota are excellent places for finding our state gemstone, but I'm going to direct you a little farther, north of Moose Lake, to the source: Lake Superior's North Shore. Few places offer the combination of accessibility and productivity for agate hunting that Lake Superior pebble beaches do. One particular standout, I think, is Sugarloaf Point Scientific and Natural Area (SNA), just southwest of Schroeder.

Sugarloaf Point SNA's 10 acres comprise a crescent-shaped pebble beach that surrounds a cove on the Lake Superior shoreline, a rocky island, and a pebbly tombolo that connects the island to the mainland. The SNA, in turn, is enveloped by the 24-acre Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center, which maintains a trail to the cove and offers educational and historical information in a small building near the beach.

The shape of the cove and its relatively shallow water make it an agate magnet, as wave action pushes the rocks into the cove, which acts like a trap for them, and then up onto the beach where lucky agate hunters can spot them. Sugarloaf Cove is a wonderful place to search for Lake Superior agates, and I've never been disappointed treasure hunting here. You could do a whole lot worse than spending a sunny afternoon sifting your hands through the smooth rocks, examining each find closely, and then gazing out at the spectacular view.

Remember, though, this is catch-and-release agate hunting: You're not permitted to take agates that you find with you. This is true of all state parks and natural areas, as well. Enjoy them while you're there, snap some photos if you like, and leave the agates for the next person you can find.

If you're interested in finding agates that you can take home with you, the public beaches on Lake Superior that fall outside of DNR management—i.e., not in parks, SNAs, or state waysides—are excellent spots to hunt. The pebble beaches in downtown Grand Marais are popular spots for rockhounds, as are beaches northeast of Grand Marais and in Tofte. My favorite is Burlington Bay beach in Two Harbors. It's right next to the municipal campground, so it can be a little busy, but the sweeping arc of the bay seems to catch a good number of real beauties, and I almost always find something when I look.

Personally, I lean more toward practicing Leave No Trace principles when agate hunting and relinquish my treasures to the beach, regardless of where I find them. If you're interested in searching for Lake Superior agates but aren't sure where to start, I recommend picking up Sparky Stensaas' excellent Rock Pickers Guide to Lake Superior's North Shore. It covers agates and a variety of other cool rocks, as well.