Whitney Lapidary Lab

This room houses a variety of spectacular collections, from petrified wood to jewelry to what some have called the best mineral collection in Kansas. The Duard Whitney collection, for which this room was named, consists of dozens of large, beautiful polished petrified wood slabs from all over the Western U.S, as well as a variety of hand-crafted wire-wrapped jewelry and pewter/petrified wood items. The central display and upper cabinets feature a wide array of striking rocks, minerals, mineral combinations, and crystals, some of which are football
size. Visitors are then enamored by the awesome shapes and colors of the natural crystals and minerals displayed in a beautiful wood cabinet specially crafted for this collection by Steve Larsh of Haviland. Handling a falling star (a meteorite that has made it to Earth) is a popular activity in this room. And in our lapidary workshops, participants enjoy shaping and polishing a rock in less than an hour.