LFJewelrydesigns: Peri "dot" or Peri "doe"

You so Tomato I say To ma To! I get really annoyed when ppl. correct me when I say peridot. I think it's because they come off like a know it all. I've decided that I am pronouncing peridot as
pair eh dot because this is the way Randy and Loraine say it and I think they are right. I mean after all their physical address is in Peridot, AZ out on the Indian reservation and they would know best...some people try to tell me it's pair eh doh. Grrrrrrr
On that note....A little more info on peridot: You can find the info below on the following website or google where in the world can you find peridot:

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gemstones/sp14-95/peridot.html

Some info that I find fascinating...

Peridot Mesa, located on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation east of Globe in Gila County, is the most productive locality for peridot in the world. A second Arizona location from which peridot is recovered is Buell Park Apache County, Arizona, about 16 kilometers north of Fort Defiance. However, it is estimated that 80% to 95% of the world's production of peridot comes from the San Carlos Reservation.

On the Reservation, peridot can be mined only by individual Native Americans or by individual families of Native Americans from the San Carlos Reservation. In the past, the miners have not marketed the peridot directly to the gemstone industry. They marketed the material in random size lots, from as small as a coffee can full to as much as a 55-gallon barrel full, to local brokers or mineral dealers. These local brokers/dealers may or may not sort and grade the material, but they do tend to market to the industry in uniform size lots. Currently, some of the large volume miners are marketing the material directly to the industry and are also contracting for cutting services and are marketing cut stones.

THIS IS SO COOL!!!!

Lorraine took off work to take Devin and I out to the San Carlos Indian reservation to go mining for peridot! So we are driving down the road and Randy pulls off to a dirt path, not even a path, and then stops in the middle of nowhere and says "ok, we are here." We get out and Devin and I are wondering where is the peridot and where are the people mining? We were the only people out there. It was just so surreal. You look down at the ground and there is crushed peridot everywhere. There are rock walls filled with peridot. I hated to walk because I knew there was no way to avoid stepping on the stones. They say it's prettier when it's rained and the peridot just shines. People have died at this very location from mining and the rocks would just fall on them. It was so neat to know that we were standing in the very place where 80-95% of the worlds peridot is located. So we are out there and I didn't want to take any until Lorraine said to. She told us to take some big rocks and so we did. I just felt that this is their land and I shouldn't take it unless she wanted me to. It was a once in a lifetime experience because no one is allowed to just go mining on the reservation. You are not allowed on the reservation unless you are with an Appachi, not Navajo, but it has to be with an Appachi Indian orrrr unless you have a work permit. Even a work permit does not allow you to go mining etc. The only reason we got to go was because we had Lorraine. So we leave because it was getting hot and because I could just stay there alllll day in Aw. We run over to the turquoise shop with big peridot rocks rolling around in the bed of the truck. Devin shows the lady at the store the peridot. She says " get that out of your truck or someone will steal it!" hahaha I guess it was a wanted stone. The crazy thing is, the Indian's own this land that has the peridot mine, it has an Amethyst mine and you can find gold as well and they don't care about it as much as we do. It's no big deal to them. They say the gold is haunted. The Indian's have a lot of superstitions. They even have a mountain called superstitious mountain and won't go on it because they believe it is haunted and they won't come back alive.