About Us I started off as a child, and was quickly transformed into a rockhound. I've had a love of rocks for as far back as I can remember, which nowadays, isn't all that far. Time to upgrade the RAM……….I guess 256K just doesn't cut it anymore. I grew up in San Francisco as part of a close knit Russian community. Yes, I still speak, read and write Russian. Perhaps that skill will come in handy when I start traveling to Russia again someday, this time in search of cool mineral specimens. I've had the pleasure of traveling to Russia 10 times, while serving as the US Forest Services, Russia Program Coordinator. More on the Forest Service later. I'm not sure what it was that got me into rock and now mineral collecting? Perhaps it was a trip to the Klamath River (in Northern California) with my friends the Turkulls. It was a wet dreary trip, many, many years ago, but we managed to find a number of nice pyrite specimens, which I still have to this day. Possibly the trip I took with my Mom and sister to the Grand Canyon (when I was twelve) where I got to see rocks of just about every color imaginable under the sun. I've still got the souvenir rock collection that I purchased there. In any case, my tastes have changed over the years, as have my spending habits. I used to think that spending $100 on a rock to be quite an investment. Well, how times have changed! Allow me to expound. When I decided to begin my own mineral business, I had what you might call, a revelation. Listening to some sound business advice from a Weaverville friend who started me down this path, I decided that in fairness to my future customers, I'd have to focus my future collecting endeavors, so as not to unintentionally compete for mineral specimens with them. What do I mean by this? OK……I'm getting to my point. Bear with me as I ramble on from time to time. I started off by saying that I was natural born rockhound. As I've increased my knowledge of mineralogy, my tastes and collecting habits have changed (for the better I hope). Up until a few years back, I was a general collector but have “refined” my tastes to focus specifically on one species – Rhodochrosite. My goal is to eventually have (what I would hope to be) a world class Rhodo collection. I admit it; I'm a Rhodo head and am proud of it. Over the past number of years, I've been slowly collecting Rhodochrosite specimens from all over the world and have many a favorite piece. Once I've got this little endeavor, up and running, I thought I'd share some of favorites Rhodochrosite specimens with you. Keep checking back from time to time and you'll be treated to some of my best. For now I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to read about my new business challenge and myself. By training and profession, I'm a forester. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!) in 1980 and currently work for the US Forest Service in Northwestern Oregon (near Portland). Actually, I'm the District Ranger for the Clackamas River Ranger District of the Mount Hood National Forest. It's a great job, one that I love. Where else can you get paid to work out in the woods? As much as I love my day job, I love mineral collecting just as much. Of course, most important in my life is my daughter. She's been observing me expand my collection throughout the years and is becoming quite the collector herself. Perhaps someday, she may want to take over my little business endeavor or help me run it. Who knows? In any case, to steal a line from one of my favorite San Francisco bands, “What A Long Strange Trip it's Been” and here I am at the beginning of a new chapter in my life. My promise to you, my fellow rockhounds; is that I will do everything I can to bring you quality mineral specimens at affordable prices. I'm learning about the wonderful natural world of minerals and mineralogy every day, and plan to keep reading and absorbing as much knowledge as I can, to serve you better. The way I figure it, the more I learn, the better I'll be able to provide for you. At the moment, I travel to Tucson and Denver every year and hope to expand the number of my mineral purchasing trips, as my day job permits. For now, sit back, relax, and get that mouse movin' and clickn' and check out my site. Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to getting to know a number of new rockhound friends. If you ever have any questions, feel free to drop me a note and don't be shy. (All the Best) Andrei V. Rykoff January 24, 2005