How It All Started
We thought it would  be  fun to dig around for opal and heard of this opal mine, un-patented  and nearly undeveloped in  Idaho, so we began Idaho Opal  Mines. Soon we found we had the  best opal mine North America, and we've proven to even make the Australians raise their eyebrows when they saw what we had. We began the procedures to  patent our claim right away, and 12 years later the patent was granted.

How We Made It
Once we were able to cut our opals and set some jewelry, we had to find our market for our American-made products. We began by doing a few gem shows in the winter when we were in California. Then in the summer of 1994, our company started our sole proprietorship in Idaho under the name of Opal Mountain Mines. Setting up a sales trailer in Dubois, we sold to the tourists. In 1993, we started attending gem shows and our wholesale customers grew continuously. Two years later we opened our retail store in Spencer, and we've been growing ever since.