doc 01 / about
The argument for this site
Here is the case for why The Rockhoundry exists, laid out plainly instead of asserted. Rockhounding is an old hobby with a real body of knowledge behind it: state geological surveys, university extension bulletins, lapidary society handbooks, decades of collector reports. That knowledge is not missing. It is scattered. A useful fact about streak tests sits in a fifty-year-old USGS pamphlet PDF. A real answer about tumbler grit timing sits three hundred replies deep in a forum thread. A thin SEO blog post repeats a Wikipedia paragraph badly, ranks anyway, and tells a beginner nothing they can act on with a rock in their hand. The information problem in this hobby is not scarcity, it is scatter and noise, and that gap is the entire reason this site exists.
01What we actually do
We work from the same sources a serious amateur would eventually track down on their own: state and federal geological survey data, lapidary and mineralogy reference manuals, museum and university identification guides, and a wide read of collector reports and club newsletters where real-world experience gets shared. We synthesize that material into guides that answer one question properly instead of a database that lists every fact and helps you decide nothing. When a claim in a guide matters, we say where that kind of claim generally comes from, a survey, a manual, a collector's account, rather than dressing it up as something we personally discovered.
02We cite the tests, not the vibes
Identification is the clearest example of our method, so it is worth stating outright: a streak plate, a hardness pick set, and a good look at cleavage and luster settle more arguments than a photo ever will. A picture tells you color and rough shape. It cannot tell you hardness, it cannot tell you a genuine streak color, and it cannot show you how a mineral actually breaks. So when we write an identification guide, we walk through the physical tests in the order that narrows things down fastest, and we say plainly when a specimen has gone past what a home test kit can resolve. That is not hedging. It is the accurate answer.
03What we will never do
No crystal-healing claims, ever. Chakras, energy fields, and metaphysical properties are not part of this site's coverage under any framing, however softened. No "this rock is worth $$$" hype: value depends on grade, locality, market conditions, and a buyer willing to pay, and a single photo caption cannot responsibly set a number. And we will never pretend a photo identification beats a streak plate, because it doesn't, and telling a beginner otherwise sends them home confidently wrong.
04Where the money comes from
This site runs on advertising and, later, affiliate links on gear a rockhound would actually buy: tumblers, grit, loupes, UV lights. Ad slots are not live yet. When affiliate links do appear, they get disclosed on the page they're on, not buried in a footer nobody reads, and they never decide what gets covered or how.
05Who's behind it
The Rockhoundry is a Monkeyjack Brands project. Found a locality tip, a correction, or a specimen you want covered? Tell us.