Prudent Man Plume Agate Slabs

Within the last decade a major new plume agate was discovered on the Idaho/Oregon border near the town of Prudent Man. As people figure out ways to take advantage of the laws unfairly, new laws are put in place if there is a prudent government. So it was in the 1880's when the mining laws began to be used for unscrupulous land grabs that a new mining law was proclaimed. It was called the Prudent Man Law which said that for a mining claim to be valid it must be possible for the claimant to show that there is some reason why a prudent man might spend good money to mine the land. This law had such an effect on a small gathering of folks living on the Oregon/Idaho border that they chose to name their town Prudent Man. Recently two significant plume agate veins were found nearby and it was seen to be very prudent to put down a claim and mine them. Prudent Man Plume is one of the very few recent finds of really fine plume, and according to Spike Andruss (a well known prospector, cutter and dealer) the last time he worked the deposit both veins seemed pretty well worked out. The first vein, known as "Number One", is characterized by a red brown cast to the plume and the "Number Two" material has a yellow green character. At least for the moment very fine specimens of this agate are available at reasonable prices.