The Magical Allure of Jade

By some freak of nature you won’t find jade on Vancouver Island. But you can find plenty of it—some of it really valuable—on the British Columbia mainland, particularly in the Fraser River country between Lillooet and Hope.

In China and Japan jade is valued even more than gold. Which explains why pioneering Chinese prospectors kept their eyes open for this gemstone which has been used for carving objects of art for centuries.

B.C. jade, more technically known as nephrite, has been in the news lately thanks to the theft of a 1300-kilogram (that’s over a ton!) jade boulder from its place of display in front of Cache Creek’s Cariboo Jade and Gifts store.

The massive green stone had been there since 1985, its owners aware that it had more sentimental than cash value because it was low-quality. Apparently the thieves didn’t know that because they went to the trouble of hauling it away with the use of an excavator and flat-deck trailer.

The monster jade stone has since been recovered and, at last report, the RCMP have identified two suspects but no arrests have been made.

Next week I’ll tell you all about the ongoing hunt for B.C.’s green gold...

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