Educated at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Thomas “Tom” Allen Disselkamp holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and has taken continuing-education courses in Fourier optics, magnetic and electrical materials, and related subjects. He utilizes this knowledge as a product development specialist with the 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. In his free time, Thomas Disselkamp engages in multiple outdoor hobbies, including agate hunting.
A popular pastime in Minnesota and beyond, agate hunting brings large numbers of people to the Lake Superior region for the promise of finding their own gems to take home. The agates are the result of a large lava flow that solidified approximately a billion years ago. Most of these striking rocks are the size of a walnut or smaller.
The best places to search for agates near Lake Superior are along beaches that have significant amounts of exposed, rocky gravel. Away from the shores of Lake Superior, agate enthusiasts can also find exceptional hunting grounds in central Minnesota. Agates came to this region between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, when a massive glacier dragged them from other parts of the Great Lakes area.
