Find amazing geodes — legally — at Keokuk’s Geode Fest

Iowa’s state rock is all over the state’s southeast corner, but to find one you need to know someone.

“There’s tons of geodes over here, but nobody has opened it up to the public,” said Kirk Brandenberger, executive director of the Keokuk Area Convention & Tourism Bureau.

The best geode hunting grounds in Iowa are located on private property, so before you start searching, you’ll need permission from landowners.

“Finding them is a tougher thing to do today,” said Dave Smith of New London in Henry County. “It’s really difficult to get access from someone you don’t know.”

Fortunately for geode fanciers, Keokuk’s Geode Fest features guided prospecting tours with the permission of local property owners. This year’s event, set for Sept. 23–26, also features classes on identifying and splitting the stones. Local vendors will have geodes and mineral-polishing equipment for sale.

“It was all engineered for families and kids,” said Mike Shumate, who organized the first Geode Fest in the early 2000s. “We’ve attracted people from France and Germany and all 50 states.”

Admission to the festival costs $15 for those ages 16 and over and $5 for those 15 and under. The registration form, which can be found on the tourism bureau’s website, must be mailed with a check for the fee by Sept. 15.

“We go to some places that are only open on that weekend,” said Brandenberger. “They’re going to find some, there’s no doubt about it.”

Mineral shops in Hamilton, Ill., just across the river from Keokuk, sell locally prospected geodes, and some offer prospecting tours on privately held acreages.

“It’s the premium spot for geodes,” said Shumate, who lives in Nauvoo, Ill. “It’s a great asset we are not actually capitalizing on. If you go to California, you’ll see some pretty ugly geodes with some pretty high prices.”

The area within about a 70-mile radius of the confluence of the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers just south of Keokuk is some of the best geode territory in the world, but prospecting sites on the Iowa side aren’t usually open to the public.

“Most of the property is held by farmers, and most of them are pretty well off,” said Shumate. “They don’t want to be bothered with geode hunting. We’ve had so much trouble with people—they trespass, they leave gates open, they leave garbage around.”

“This area really is kind of the epicenter of the best geodes available,” said Smith. His grandfather led the effort to create Geode State Park near Danville in 1937, and his father developed a rock-polishing tumbler “that kind of put us on the map worldwide.”

What is a geode?

Geodes are hollow, often spherical rocks with masses of disparate minerals inside. Prospectors split geodes with a hammer or a special rock saw to reveal the intricate crystalline formations inside.

“They’re fascinating,” said Smith, who has been a geode hunter for about 50 years. “I’ve opened thousands of them, and I can’t wait to open the next one.”

“That’s the thing about geodes,” Brandenberger said. “You just never know until you crack them open.”

Today’s tri-state area along the Mississippi River in Iowa’s southeast corner was a tepid inland sea about 350 million years ago, with perfect mineral and water conditions to form today’s geodes.

“The thing that makes these so unique is the minerals that were in this area’s water system when they were formed,” said Smith. “The minerals basically formed a second mineral within the rock. About 21 different mineral combinations can be found in them. That’s what makes them so desirable throughout the world: the fact that there’s so many different minerals.”

A great place to recreate (but not geode hunt)

Geode State Park is home to a display of local geodes, but it’s illegal to remove plants and minerals from a state park. Park manager Ulf Konig refers visitors to privately owned prospecting sites in the area.

The park still has plenty to offer, however, including hiking, boating, fishing and camping.

The state park’s 187-acre reservoir was drained in 2017 to remove decades of accumulated silt and repair eroded shorelines. Water levels returned to normal this spring, and the reservoir will be stocked with fish this fall, Konig said.

“It’s all back to normal, except for the fish,” said Konig.

“They did a million-dollar renovation at the campground,” said Smith, who founded Friends of Geode State Park to support improvements at the park. The group is raising funds to renovate the park’s concessions building, which he hopes will reopen next year.

The Keokuk convention and tourism bureau also houses the Bevard Collection of locally harvested geodes, named for a family that operated a local mineral shop.