Jade is the state gem of Alaska, and the largest jade deposits in the United States are here, above the Arctic Circle in the Jade Mountains along the Kobuk River, where whole boulders of deep-green nephrite have tumbled into the drainages. The Iñupiat carved it for millennia. This is genuinely remote, roadless Arctic ground reached by bush plane; most people meet Alaska jade through the carvers and shops, but it comes from real mountains made of the stone.
Nephrite jade (Alaska state gem)
See it on the map
