Graeagle gold miners mine, make and sell
 
By Julie Hetterle
Staff Writer
It may seem exceptional to some that Plumas County residents Ken and Debbie McMaster create and sell fine jewelry in their small gallery in Graeagle. But the McMasters do much more than make and sell jewelry.
This vertically integrated business does everything from mining the gold to designing and creating the jewelry to selling it along with the work of 75 other local artisans at Graeagle’s new Gold Rush Gallery.
Featured in the August 2005 issue of the nationally recognized The Crafts Report, the Gold Rush Gallery also received special acclaim for the third year in a row, receiving the Invitational Circle Award at the Tapestry Arts Festival in San Jose.
This award honors outstanding quality, design innovation, and overall professionalism in execution and presentation of their work.
The McMasters specialize in jewelry made from gold-bearing white quartz.
In an interview, Ken said that the rare stone/mineral combination comes from the world famous Sixteen to One Mine in the Sierra foothills near Allegheny.
Each piece of jewelry is unique because of varying factors such as the color of the stone, the amount of gold in the stone, and the distribution pattern. This elevates the value of gold quartz to that of a semi-precious stone.
Ken and Debbie explained that they began mining gold in 1979 on Ken’s family mining claim, located in Siskiyou County within the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. This claim originally belonged to Ken’s grandfather, who mined natural nugget gold there beginning in 1934.
The McMasters continue to mine gold each year at the family claim, using burros to pack in and out of the area where their cabin and blacksmith shop serve as a base. They dredge for placer river gold along the South Fork of the Salmon River, where gold was first discovered in that region.
Debbie said that the normal day of hard work produces from 1/4 to 1/2 ounce of gold.
This wilderness experience inspired their mountain scene jewelry lines. These include the Lake Tahoe, Mountains and Rivers, Yosemite, Wolf, Log Cabin, Bear, Latte Coffee Cup and Pine Bough series and others.
The couple began turning their gold into jewelry when several resorts that saw the gold they mined asked them if they could make jewelry. They decided to take classes in jewelry making.
Their first creations were gold nugget jewelry and have evolved to the more intricate styles they produce today.
“Customers are our best designers,” said Ken. He explained that they are open to new ideas and approaches in jewelry making.
Not many jewelers can stand behind their work like the McMasters do. They know everything about it. Their slogan is “Mine it, design it, make it.”
Ken and Debbie have displayed their work at juried fine arts and crafts shows for many years around the country and have won many awards and recognition in magazines such as Snow Country and Going for the Gold.
The McMasters relocated their 20-year home-based business from Truckee in the spring of 2004 and opened The Gold Rush Gallery in Graeagle on June 1, 2004.
As Debbie said, “We made a great decision to move from Truckee to Plumas County… That’s the big city!”