Love of rocks brings man to new career

Steve Anderson has rocks on the brain. He’s collected rocks since he was a child. As a woodsman he collected stones while hiking, hunting and fishing along the quiet trails and streams that wend their ways through the forests of Washington and Oregon.

Today Steve is retired but he still keeps a close eye on the ground wherever he goes.

Anderson spent the first half of his life working in the forests.

“I was a logger for the first 17 years of my working life,” said Steve. “Even then I’d keep and eye out for pretty stones."

Anderson said he eventually tired of logging and spent the rest of his career in the shipping department at Georgia Pacific Mill in Oregon.

“I liked the woods,” said Steve, “but after awhile, I needed a break and decided working in the mill was better than working outside in the cold and rain.”

Steve worked 20 years at Georgia Pacific and retired in 1997.

“After I retired I went crazy,” he says with a chuckle, “and then I went back to work. "

He worked as a health care provider in a men’s home for the developmentally disabled.

“Some of the guys could act out (violently), and I lost three shirts,” said Steve. He said he lasted about a year but the work was depressing so he moved on.

“From there I ended up at a bait and tackle shop out on the Kalama River,” he said. He’d known the shop’s owner for years and one day while in the shop he happened to ask the owner if he needed help. “Heck, I was working that same night.”

Anderson said that’s where he learned to tie flies. He specializes in tying trout flies which, in an odd way, brings us back to the rocks.

“I would fish all over the state,” said Steve, “but I couldn’t stop looking down, looking for a rock to stick in my pocket."

Steve said he’s picked up and brought home rocks from all over the state. His garage is full of the darn things. Big. Small. They’re all there in different sizes and shapes.

“I just put a coat of polyurethane on that one,” he says pointing to a huge agate that must weigh at least 80 pounds sitting behind a chair. “It’s for my son. I had to drag it out of the ground with my Jeep.

The stone gleams.

“I almost cut it up to see what’s inside but it was so pretty I decided to leave is as it is.”

Anderson is actually in good company when it comes to rock collecting. Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci all collected rocks. Geology departments in universities throughout the world require students to collect rocks. Some people collect rocks because they’re pretty. Other collect them for luck or to make a spiritual statement.

Rocks are permanent. The representational state of permanence in relation to eternity is one reason rocks are so attractive as a symbol to people.

It’s common to visit a cemetery anywhere in the world and find a small pebble sitting peacefully atop a headstone. In the Burren National Park in County Clare, Ireland, people have stacked rocks for over a century in hope of creating good luck for themselves. Still others have created their small offerings as an outward reflection of the inner human spirit.

Anderson said he can’t exactly explain what it is about rocks that attract him.

“I think it’s that they represent the permanence of our world,” he says, stopping for a moment to consider what he’s just said. “That, and the fact that I love to see what’s inside of them.”

Anderson recently bought a stone cutter's saw. It’s a big one with a two foot blade. As the saw runs, the smell of warm oil permeates the air in his shop. He sits down and starts to talk about his plans for all the rocks he’s collected over the years. It’s becoming more than a hobby.

“I’m starting a little business and calling it ‘SkamokaRocks,’” said Steve, “because that’s where I’ve found most of my most recent rocks, in Skamokawa. I’ve also started selling them at the Two Islands Farmers Market.”

The big stone saw sits idle while we talk. On the bench across from the saw sit some of Steve’s work. The agate, and crystal rocks have been sliced into thin layers and surround the beautiful gold color of iron pyrite. The sun shines through each piece making it unique.

“I’m going to by a stone polisher next and maybe team up with a jewelry maker,” Steve says as he looks at one of his latest creations.

“Oh, and you gotta see this,” he says and turns and heads for his house. He’s gone a few minutes and when he returns he holds up a very odd shaped rock.

"You know what this is,” he asks sitting it down on the bench with a devilish smile. “It’s petrified poop. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet but we’ll see.”