{"id":5065,"date":"2019-08-01T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T19:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forths.com\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:49:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T19:49:24","slug":"leland-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forths.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/leland-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Leland Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In early July, Deb and I were relaxing on a beach in Elk Rapids, MI, with our friends Tim and Linda. While running my fingers through the sand, I found a blue stone. One side had a glassy blue surface while the other side had bubble craters, as if it was once very hot. I didn’t know what it was, so I took the stone home to research later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that the stone is called Leland Blue<\/a>, and is the by-product of the iron ore smelting process that occurred in northwest Michigan from 1870 to 1885. Leland Blue isn’t a true stone, but is the slag by-product of separating the iron from the iron ore. This slag was discarded in Lake Michigan, and commonly washes ashore . These stones are hunted by collectors today, and some larger pieces fetch nice prices online. For the most part, these are not valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My little Leland Blue stone sits on my desk at work, where it serves as an interesting conversation starter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n