Sarah: My favorite part about my family over there [in the Bighorn Basin], is my great grandfather was a lapidary. So that is, he worked with semiprecious stones. So he was a rock hound. He would get stones from all over the place, and he would turn them into these big cowboy belt buckles and pendants and the Indian neckties, and he would make jewelry out of those. And that's kind of ingrained in my blood. So whenever I see pretty rocks, I get really excited. And over there at the homestead, there are just rocks everywhere that he didn't use. So you can just walk around and find slices of all sorts of agates and crystals and stones and geodes and stuff. So you can just walk around and find them and collect them. And it's kind of a big part of our family, is stones. 

Misty: Was that a joy for you when you were a kid? 

Sarah: Absolutely, it's still a joy for me. Whenever we go over there, you just go around the old—because nobody lives out there anymore—but we go out there every once in a while just to check on things. And literally, you just walk around the old dilapidated corrals and the burnt down cabin, and you will find stones and partially cut geodes and agates and all sorts of beautiful stones. 

Misty: You take them with you and have a collection?

Sarah: I've taken, I've taken quite a few. You don't go overboard with taking them, because it's like you got to have this feeling like this crystal really wants to come home with me, or if it doesn't, you leave it behind, and some other family member might find it and take it. It's kind of an interesting..we're very, not quite spiritual about it, but kind of where it's just like you have to respect this place, because there's an energy out there at the home place. It's really incredible.

Misty: Do you have a memory when you were first there or a memory from that place besides the stones?

Sarah: The first time I was out there, it was a long time ago, because we always go out there. But I remember it used to be, it's kind of creepy, because it is very dilapidated, and there's all sorts of junk and old cars out there, and the house has kind of been left to rot, and there's like, old taxidermy that are me that's rotting, and some of the cabins and stuff. 

I remember there's an old, like a grain silo out there, it's not used for that [anymore], it's got some of great grandpa's old lapidiary equipment stored in it now. But on top of it, is all of his unrefined stuff. And there's like, different sections where this section is fossils and this section is geodes, and this section is like, oh, what's it called, obsidian. And different kinds of agates and stuff. But it was always really scary and sketchy going up there, because it was an old rusted silo, and you had to watch where you stepped if you're gonna go up there for rocks. Because you might fall through and, you know, who knows what's down there, you might fall into a pit of raccoons.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.