Legislation Would Spotlight Lake Superior Agate on Minnesota Parks License Plate

Lars Leafblad spent decades hunting Lake Superior agates along the North Shore, first with his grandparents Jack and Sally Birk, who called Duluth home for 50 years, and later with his own four children. That family tradition drove the Shoreview resident to ask his state representative a simple question: why doesn't Minnesota's official state gemstone appear on a license plate?

The answer is now moving through the Legislature. HF 3699, introduced February 25 by Rep. David Gottfried (DFL-Shoreview) and Rep. Alex Falconer, and its Senate companion SF 4374, authored by Sen. Grant Hauschild (DFL-Hermantown), would redirect an already-authorized Minnesota DNR design contest toward Lake Superior agate and North Shore themes. Both versions passed committee unanimously and await floor votes.

Neither bill creates a new specialty plate. Both amend a 2024 law directing the DNR to hold a public design contest for a state parks and trails plate, adding a requirement that the winning design must "celebrate the North Shore and the Lake Superior Agate." If passed, the DNR plans to open public submissions this summer.

Hauschild, who represents a Northland district that includes Hermantown, emphasized the regional identity at stake. "This is a creative way to put a little piece of northern Minnesota on the road," he said. "Not every state has something as iconic and personal to (its) geography as agates. Up here, they're part of family traditions of weekends on the North Shore collecting a small piece of natural beauty." He also noted that people travel from across the country to hunt agates along the shore.

Leafblad co-founded Friends of the Lake Superior Agate Plate, or FOTAP, which operates agateplate.com, and has framed the plate as a bipartisan project. "In a moment of great division and partisan divide across our state, this idea would be a small, but visible, bridge to bring people together," he said. Gottfried called the bill "highly uncontroversial" at a March 10 committee presentation, and the DNR has signaled its support.

The Lake Superior agate became Minnesota's official state gemstone in 1969, when Gov. Harold LeVander presided over a designation that outlasted competing minerals, including binghamite of the Cuyuna Range, thomsonite near Grand Marais, and pipestone from western Minnesota. The stones are believed to be the world's oldest agates, formed roughly 1.1 billion years ago in basaltic lava flows, then scattered across the state and into Iowa and Illinois by glaciers about 2 million years ago. Exceptional specimens can fetch hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Ben Chorn, a geologist and president of the Minnesota Mineral Club, already owns a personalized plate referencing the agate. He describes the stones as "distinct, with a deep red color and a contrasting white band." Moose Lake, roughly 70 miles south of Duluth, calls itself the "agate capital of the world" and holds an annual Agate Days festival each July.

The last DNR parks plate design contest, held in 2016, drew more than 30,000 online votes. Coon Rapids artist Michelle Vesaas won with a canoe and four-seasons design, announced by then-Lt. Gov. Tina Smith. The resulting plate provides unlimited access to all 75 Minnesota state parks, replacing the standard $25 annual vehicle permit.

With the Legislature split 101 Democrats to 100 Republicans, Hauschild said he hopes "this one piece of legislation can bring us together," adding the state could use "a little bit of good news in what has been, I think, a heavy year in Minnesota.