Liam, and his sisters Charlotte and Aurora have come to Fairy Stone State Park in Patrick County with the hopes of finding their own fairy stones. And they’ve come to one of the few places where they can be found.
Park Manager Adam Layman talks about the park's namesake, “The stones are formed naturally here in a vein on the eastern edge of the park. They’re only formed in a few places throughout the world, but they’re most prevalent here.”
Though popularly referred to as Fairy Stones, the stones are actually staurolite crystals.
Interpretive park ranger Danny Martin provides a bit of science,
“They were formed about seven miles beneath the surface of the earth. And the pressures, temperatures - combinations and just the right amounts of silica, iron and aluminum – that heat and pressure caused them to crystalize.”
Martin goes on to talk about the collision of tectonic plates, “When those plates came together, they formed the Blue Ridge Mountains and brought the Fairy Stones from seven miles below.”
The crystallization process leads to the stones’ distinct characteristics.
Martin describes the variations, “There are basically four different shapes. There is like a single crystal. Some of the single crystals will merge and the Maltese cross looks basically like a plus sign. There’s a Roman cross that looks like the letter “T” and then there’s the St. Andrew’s that looks like the letter “X”.
The name Fairy Stone evokes mysticism and captures the imagination. The stones are believed to bring good fortune.
Martin offers one of the most popular pieces of lore behind the name, “The Native Americans believed that there was a race of small people that inhabited this area. Very tiny. They were referred to as “fairies.” And one day the fairies learned of the crucifixion of Jesus. They were saddened. They began to cry. And when their tears hit the ground, they turned to stone crosses.”
The park has a dedicated search area that features a high concentration of the crystals. But before we head to search area, there are just a few rules that need to be followed.
“Well, you can keep any of the fairy stones that you find. You just can’t dig for them. So, we don’t allow digging tools or anything like that. But you can search the surface to find the stones", explains Layman. He then provides a few tips for searching, "The best time to find them is after a heavy rain and it washes off the top layer of rock and dirt and you can usually find them pretty good then. You can also look, if you find a fallen tree along the trail where the stones are found. Looking through the roots of the tree you can usually find a bunch.”
After talking with the rangers, we went to the search area, where I encountered plenty of people, including Andi and Tanner, who were sifting through a handful of rocks in search of the stones.
“Have you had any luck?”, I asked.
Tanner confesses, “So, we don’t know what we’re looking at! We realized that pretty early on.”
Andi laughs and adds, “We were looking for geometric patterns. I just thought that was pretty.”
Manager Layman slips into “Ranger Adam” mode to take a look and deliver the good news, “That’s definitely one, here.”
Tanner can hardly contain here delight, “Yes!”
Layman notices something unusual about one particular stone, “You can actually see it has an embedded garnet.”
Tanner looks closer, “What?!”
Layman points to the garnet, “Yup, that’s a good one.”
“That’s awesome!” says Tanner giddily.
And Liam, from our group we met earlier, shows his stone to Ranger Adam and also gets the good news.
Layman confirms the find, “Let’s see. Oh, yeah! It’s a little weathered, but you’ve got a nice single crystal.”
Liam celebrates, “Woo!”
There are regularly scheduled guided tours available, which include a visit to the search area.
You'll find more information about Fairy Stone State Park here.
