About us

Where it started

James Bey was raised on his parents’ farm outside of Boyertown, Pennsylvania. He spent most of his childhood planting and picking a variety of produce. He would find arrowheads and other stones in the fields while working and began to develop an interest in them. His parents bought him a cabbing machine for Christmas one year and they built a rock tumbler, which eventually led to him starting his own business in 1961. Of course at the time, he couldn’t rely solely on the rock business. He did many other things including working in a factory, picking apples, bailing hay, delivering mail, and driving ambulance.

Most people thought he was crazy but he decided that none of those were what he wanted to do for the rest of his life so he pursued the stone business full time, until he was drafted in 1964. His parents kept the business going until he was honorably discharged from the Army several years later.

Storefront, painted in 1970 by James Waldren

He eventually turned the barn into a cutting factory which at one point included a 36” diamond saw and a 1,000 pound rock tumbler. He would get tractor trailer loads of Petrified Wood from Utah and cut and polish it into everything from bookends to jewelry pieces.

He met his wife in 1967 when she came into the shop for a Mother’s Day gift. Interest in minerals and crystals started to grow and soon they were travelling across the country, setting up at shows and selling from Maine to Arizona. At one point, they did twenty-five shows a year! He traveled to Mexico many times a year for mineral specimens and rough rock to cut, as well as importing rough rock from all over the world.

As the business grew, he decided to move the store out of the barn and onto the main highway. He bought an old factory building on Rt. 100 in July of 1981 and in September of that year his daughter, Kelly, was born. Raised in the business, she continues to work with her parents. Her husband, Matt, joined them in 2011 and in 2012 their son, Russel, was born. Hopefully he will continue as the third generation of the business. Russel’s favorite stone is Petrified Wood which is very appropriate considering the tons (literally!) Jim cut when he first started out. And it just so happens to be Jim’s favorite as well!

Though he no longer has the cutting factory, Jim has made many wonderful friends and contacts from all over the world. They bring beautiful minerals and crystals directly to him.

How it’s going

For Kelly, it’s very important to keep the business going. She enjoys sharing the wonders of the mineral world with her customers. The experiences, the people, and the stories make being in the rock and mineral business a fun and crazy ride. She wouldn’t want to do anything else.

Matt was working construction when he and Kelly got married. Not long after, he made the decision to join the family business. He had never set foot in the store until they were dating but fit right in as if he had been there his whole life. Russel has said he’s going to take over the business and if that’s the path he wants to take his family is completely behind him. He loves when shipments come in and dives head first into the crates and boxes, excited over each piece he unpacks. It seems as if the rock business is truly in his blood.