Marty Puryer has a rock that weighs as much as a school bus in his front yard. It’s beautiful and it could be yours.
Puryer, a miner by trade, has found a new sideline project that started up as a fun hobby and is developing into a respectable business endeavor. He sells rocks containing what he calls a rare and gorgeous type of quartz from southeastern Montana. Through word of mouth, people have been showing up at his house in search of quartz rocks for their flower gardens, yards, mantle or wherever else that could use the decorative minerals.
“I thought this was just a sideline job, not really a business,” Puryer said. “But it looks like it might be turning into one. If people keep coming to me, I’ll keep doing it. I like to keep the people happy.”
Over the past five years or so, Puryer said there has been an invigorated, though not necessarily traditional, interest in landscaping. Part of this movement is the landscape boulder. People line their driveways with decorative stones, systematically place them on their lawns or use them in outdoor fountains and waterfalls. Puryer said he had a customer who had plans to place one of the quartz-filled rocks in his home foyer.
“Nice landscaping has been catching on the past five years over a wide, wide area across the country,” Puryer said.
Some of Puryer’s rocks are the size of a football, while others are several tons. The biggest is seven-feet tall and five-feet wide, weighing between eight and 10 tons. That’s nearly as much as an empty school bus. The quartz is dense and heavy, with hues of off-white, red, silver and light brown. They sparkle when wet. Puryer said they naturally drain, even when water collects in pockets.
“These things are just so beautiful that they accent anything,” Puryer said.
Puryer gets his rocks from a mining company in southeastern Montana. The company occasionally hits a patch of the quartz while mining for other ores and then contacts Puryer, who had expressed an interest in the quartz four years ago.
“There’s a very limited supply,” Puryer said.
The quartz’s crystals are differently shaped, colored and textured, depending on the rock. Much like a snowflake, no two quartz deposits appear to be the same in Puryer’s rocks. He said mineralization, heat and pressure all affect the crystals.
The boulders’ prices depend on their size, ranging from $50 into the thousands. Some of the rocks can be taken away by car, but the big ones are considerably tougher to transport. Puryer said he will deliver any of the boulders and help to properly set them up if desired.
In the past year, Puryer said word has gotten out about his quartz and customers have been steadily streaming in. One of his customers, he said, drilled and shaped her rock into a display piece before selling it for $5,000.
While continuing his other mining operations, Puryer, who lives north of Kalispell, is pleased with the quartz project. He has lined up a few of the rocks along his driveway and may use a couple more for his own landscaping projects. But the rest of the boulders are reserved for customers, who can view them at Puryer’s house. Puryer can be reached at (406) 756-6242.
Thus far, Puryer said feedback from customers has been encouraging.
“Everybody falls in love with them,” Puryer said.