Parker is a little squeamish about people picking the spheres up – and understandably. Pendant-sized pieces and chunks are priced for sale beginning somewhere around $40, while a group of polished Poppy Jasper spheres (Parker’s personal collection not for sale) the size of baseballs and softballs are worth up to $400. After hours of work and about 13 steps required to transform a piece of Poppy Jasper from rough to marble-smooth, the end result causes customers in Parker’s store to ogle at the finished product. Unpolished, the mineral sometimes resembles a lump of ketchup-red and dull mustard-yellow clay smashed together. This results in those familiar brick reds, mocha browns, coal black, sunflower yellows and creamy hues and streaks of white that make each piece of Poppy Jasper so wonderfully bizaare and eye-catching. Slowly but surely, “these little orbs begin to form,” Anderson explains.ĭiscoloration occurs when another element, or contaminate gets into that clear silicon dioxide formula. Poppy Jasper is a type of orbicular jasper, denoting its needle-like crystals that aggregate around one nucleus and grow spherically. Most commonly, this element is some type of iron oxide – “typically what you and I call rust,” he says. When the earth shifts, different elements or minerals get infused into that liquid silica body, Anderson explains. The mineral was first created by the slow cooling of a hot liquid composed almost entirely of silica dioxide – most commonly found in nature as sand or quartz. The stuff was formed through a combination of volcanic and seismic activity on the slopes of El Toro millions of years ago when woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers still roamed the planet, according to Anderson. Recognizably distinct for its psychedelic patterns of red and yellow circles that often resemble an iris, splotchy lichens, sea anemones, a miniature version of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot – or, most notably, the orange, yellow and red flower from which its name is inspired – Poppy Jasper is a form of chalcedony, or translucent variety of quartz. But it comes with the territory when you’re a “geo-geek.” Sure, Anderson’s getting technical and “esoteric” on us. In 2002 Poppy Jasper was named Morgan Hill’s official rock, making the city one of a few in the country with its own rock, or, mineral. “It’s sort of funny, because City Council of Morgan Hill decided to adopt Poppy Jasper as our official ‘city rock’…even though it is just a mineral,” he chuckled. Morgan Hill’s official “city rock,” in fact, isn’t actually a rock, according to Engineering Geologist Peter Anderson with Morgan Hill Pacific Geotechnical Engineering. ![]() They think it’s a film festival…but it’s not. ![]() The funny part, says Parker, is “there’s many people in Morgan Hill that don’t even know what it is. A popular film festival running nine years and counting takes its name from the mineral, even embedding a piece of Poppy Jasper into each of the award plaques so filmmakers and attendees can “walk away with a piece of Morgan Hill.” The City of Morgan Hill – the website template for which subtly reflects the kaleidoscopic red and yellow spheres found in the microcrystalline variety of quartz unique to Morgan Hill – has a “Poppy Jasper” ceramics room. A row of homes line Poppy Jasper Lane near the intersection of Cochrane and Monterey roads. Patrons of the El Toro Brewing Company can relax at a custom-designed, 40-foot long wraparound bar inlaid with the rare orbicular jasper while sipping the award-winning Poppy Jasper Amber Ale. ![]() Like the polished stones arranged in a spinning display case inside Parker’s busy A-1 Saw & Lawn Mower shop behind Rocca’s Market in San Martin, Poppy Jasper is to the Morgan Hill area as garlic is to Gilroy: A ubiquitous component of the community’s identity and character.Ī meteor-like hunk of the stuff sits on display inside a special case inside the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. “He has the whole garage to himself, so it’s like his little man cave…but with rocks.” My mom would be so mad,” says his daughter Amy Bou, a 27-year-old Gavilan College nursing student.
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