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The Mozarkite Society was organized in February, 2000, and incorporated in April, 2000. The officers for 2007 are:
Our resident authority on Mozarkite is Linville Harms. His story of Mozarkite starts in 1957 when he discovered that the stone could be polished and made into jewelry. Before this it was referred to "as a stone that Indians made arrowheads for their everyday use." In 1967, Senate Bill No. 216 was approved designating Mozarkite as the state rock for Missouri.
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Mozarkite is an attractive, highly-colored
cryptocrystalline variety of quartz appearing in many colors
and shades of colors such as red, blue, brown, pink, white, yellow,
black raspberry, salmon and green which is very scarce. The formation
of the stone created a "swirling" of the various colors.
When the stone is "cut open or sliced", (using a diamond
edge saw blade), the exposed surface often reveals pictures.
It takes little imagination to find faces, mountains, lakes,
trees, waterfalls, etc. One such piece is displayed in the Truman
Library in Independence bearing the likeness of a Missouri Mule.
Mozarkite has a hardness of 7.5 to 7.75 on the Mohs scale (diamonds
are 10), which qualifies it as a suitable material for semiprecious
gemstone. The hardness allows the stone to be worked to a high
polish.