Deep Well Designs and its roots run deep in Mineral County

During Armed Forces Day weekend, fourth generation Northern Nevada rockhounds Thomas Johnston and Riley Larson are standing in front of an impressive display of brightly colored turquoise, variscite, and other earth-derived gems set in detailed wearable silver patterns. Residing in Luning, Nevada, AFD is one of the biggest events that it attends locally. However, the Deep Well Designs owners have a lot of plans to share their story and their stones on a wider scale while keeping their family heritage alive.

Deep Well Designs founder Thomas Johnston has been digging for rocks with his grandfather Wilfred Buffington before he can even remember. Johnston was born in Tonopah but raised by his grandparents, Wilfred and Grandma B, who lived in Luning.

“I was grandpa’s little satellite, following him around everywhere,” he says, explaining that his great grandparents were the original locators of the turquoise and variscite claims. Thomas’s great-grandfather Earl Buffington was living in Benton where his grandpa Wilfred was born, and then moved to a ranch in Mina when Wilfred was seventeen.

Earl is credited with being one of the founders of the famous Number 8 turquoise mine, filing the claim on it in 1929. Him and his wife Gertrude then raised Wilfred into a rock hobbyist, finding interesting stones all around Northern Nevada. Wilfred then showed his grandson Thomas how to dig, polish, and use a torch to turn the stones into jewelry as well. Growing up, Thomas easily developed a passion for rock hunting as well and is now keeping the family tradition alive.

Thomas sadly admits that his grandfather passed away last summer but that he was definitely proud of where the Deep Wells Designs business is going.

“He was a hobbyist, always taking me out rock hunting. Once his Alzheimer’s kicked in, he started carrying around a pocket full of rocks that I found when I was a kid. I kept telling him to replace those rocks with some of my work; I took 100 hours and made him a locket and he showed that off all the time,” Thomas beams.

“[Wilfred] could tell you any place to dig around. He was not good with directions… his way of pointing you to a claim would be ‘turn right where the broken branch is and go past that pile of rocks,’” Thomas smiles, acknowledging that it could be because Wilfred’s mind was as sharp as a razor into his fifties before he lost his short-term memory but luckily his long-term memory was still there to remember where the claims were.

“He could tell you where he went to high school and where to find good rocks,” Thomas says.

His business partner Riley Larson agrees. “It’s so easy to get lost out there in the desert, but he knew exactly where to go. I would not be able to find the places he took us to now, though,” Larson laughs.

Along with rock hounding being deep in their blood, Thomas also prides himself on his silversmithing and working the metal around the stones in a traditional way that takes quite a bit more effort than what some of the other jewelers do.

It also helps growing up finding unique and ancient fossilized stones in a place called Mineral County.

“It’s nice to be close to where the claims are. We came here to help our grandparents but there’s a lot of rocks here, too. And we got lucky that this was passed down through the generations,” Larson says.

“I’m very blessed to have had my grandfather around to teach me these things,” Thomas adds. Deep Well Designs keeps around 200 jewelry pieces in its rotating collection, with rings named “Rustler”, “Bionic Beauty” and “Bronc”, necklaces called “Cenotes”, “Copperhead Road”, and “Falling Feather- Ol’ Willie Turquoise” named after their grandfather.

Thomas says that he likes all rocks, while Riley Larson says that her favorite is the Ol’ Willie Turquoise. “It’s gorgeous,” she adds. He does admit that it’s pretty amazing finding the ancient pseudomorphs, the 250-million-year-old fossilized clams, forming gem grade variscite over time.

More information about the pseudomorphs (along with a wealth of other Mineral County history) can be found on the Deep Well Designs blog, but now the couple is focused on taking their passion nationwide.

“Right now we’re building a schoolie and taking our work across the country. We want to get more involved with shows,” Thomas says of the 32-ft. bluebird school bus that they are converting into a motorhome and shop. In the meantime, Deep Well Designs jewelry and stones can be found online as well as where to find the couple after they finish renovating their school bus.

For more information about Deep Well Designs, visit www.deepwelldesigns.com.