Wyoming jade, deep spinach-green to near-black nephrite, is the state gem, and the high desert around Jeffrey City and the Granite Mountains was a jade-hunting frontier in the 1930s-50s when “jade fever” drew rockhounds who found boulders worth fortunes lying on the ground. The easy pickings are long gone and most of the good ground is PRIVATE ranch land or claimed, but jade still turns up, and it is legal to hunt on much of the surrounding BLM desert. Bring water; this is big, empty, waterless country.
Nephrite jade (Wyoming state gem)
See it on the map
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
