Graveyard Point Plume Agate Slab 5" x 2.25" x 3/8" - 8.666 oz — PP-00008

A substantial hand-collected plume agate slab from Graveyard Point, the world-famous plume agate locality straddling the Oregon–Idaho line in the Owyhee high desert. I prospected this piece myself, hauled it home, and slabbed it on my own lapidary equipment.

About this piece

This is a big, characterful slab of Graveyard Point plume agate showing the full range of what this legendary locality produces. The body is a blend of cream, yellow, tan, and amber chalcedony with rust and iron oxide rim staining, and the slab displays visible plume structures and feathery mineral inclusions through the solid zones. Held up to a light, the amber and honey zones glow with rich translucency — a backlit feature that only the best Graveyard Point material shows.

A note on the vug structure: This slab has multiple natural vugs, open pockets, and a few through-holes in the body. That's part of what makes this piece characterful — vugs are natural formation features from where the agate grew into open space in the host rhyolite — but it means this isn't a "cut the whole thing into cabs" slab. It's best suited for one of two purposes: (1) as a display specimen mounted on a stand, showing the natural plume and vug structure of a genuine Graveyard Point piece, or (2) as select cabbing rough where a cabber works around the vugs to pull 3–5 smaller high-quality cabs from the solid translucent zones. Either way, what you're getting is a substantial piece of legendary locality material at a price that reflects the natural imperfections.

A note on the photos and shipping condition: These photos were taken with saw oil still on the slab, straight off the lapidary saw. The slab will ship to you in that same condition — wet with saw oil — which is how experienced cabbers prefer to receive rough anyway, because the oil keeps the faces clean and gives you an accurate preview of how the material will look when finished. If you'd rather receive it cleaned up, just let me know in the order notes and I'll wipe it down before shipping. Either way, the color, pattern, and translucency you see in the listing photos are exactly what the stone looks like wet, and exactly what a polished cab or finished display face will look like.

Specifications

• Material: Plume agate with vug structure
• Locality: Graveyard Point, Malheur County, Oregon
• Dimensions: approximately 5" × 3" × 3/8"
• Weight: 8.666 oz
• Form: Rough-cut slab, natural edges and vug structure preserved
• Finish: Sawn faces, unpolished — ships wet with saw oil (Food-grade mineral oil)

For cabbers

Plenty of solid translucent material between the vugs for select cab work. Plan your cuts around the voids and you can pull multiple honey-amber plume cabs from this slab. Stabilization before cutting is recommended around any of the thinner bridges between vugs, as is standard practice for vuggy agate.

For collectors

This slab works beautifully as a standalone display piece on a small easel. The natural vug structure and visible plume inclusions tell the story of how agate actually forms in the host rhyolite at Graveyard Point — it's a geologic specimen as much as a lapidary piece.

About Plume & Prospect

Plume & Prospect is a one-person operation run by a working prospector in southwest Idaho. I'm a prospector first — chasing gold, minerals, and rough across the Owyhee high desert — and I rockhound everything beautiful I come across along the way. Every single piece in this shop is a specimen I personally gathered in the field, then brought home and worked by hand on my own lapidary equipment. I'm not a reseller. I don't import rough from overseas, I don't buy at shows and flip it, and I don't sell anything I didn't pull out of the ground myself. If it's in the shop, I prospected it, I cut it, and I can tell you exactly where it came from.