Spencer, Idaho: Opal Capital of America

Spencer, Idaho has a population of thirty-one people. It is also the self-proclaimed Opal Capital of America. About five to six miles outside this tiny hamlet in Clark County, a volcanic hillside holds one of the few opal deposits in the United States open to the public. The opals here formed in ancient rhyolite, a fine-grained volcanic rock, and are prized for their fire and translucence.

The Spencer Opal Mine draws rockhounds from across the country who pay a fee to dig their own stones and keep what they find. The opals range from common white to vivid play-of-color specimens worth hundreds of dollars. Spencer otherwise exists largely to serve that mine, sitting at about six thousand feet on the high desert plateau of eastern Idaho, with the Continental Divide and Beaverhead Mountains visible to the east.