Reg C. Merkley has spent a lifetime looking down.
Where many people see driftwood, pebbles and washed-up reeds along the shore of Lesser Slave Lake, the 82-year-old from Widewater sees possibility. Over decades of walking the lakeshore and gravel bars, Merkley has gathered stones, fossils, antlers and horns that most people would pass by.

In his hands, those findings have become jewellery, carvings and sculptures that carry a bit of local history with them. Merkley says his fascination with shoreline treasures began when he was a child. Long before he knew the names of the stones he was picking up, he was already collecting them.

He remembers finding agate as a boy without realizing what it was. At the time, he says, he was more interested in whether the rock would skip well across the water than in its value.

That early curiosity eventually turned into a practice that now shapes much of his work. Merkley offers ammolite and stone jewellery, as well as stone, bone and fossil carvings and sculptures made from shed horn.

He says the antlers and horns he carves must be unattached to the head to be legal.

Polished stones sat beside carved horn pieces. Fossils and jewellery shared space with stories about where each material came from and how it was found.

Merkley says the treasures he sells are not imported from famous gem regions or purchased from dealers. He says all the gems he sells were found on the shore of Lesser Slave Lake. That list includes stones many people would never expect to turn up in northern Alberta. Merkley says he has found gems from all over the world on the lakeshore, including larimar, a blue stone associated with the Dominican Republic, and even amethyst. As far as he knows, emerald may be the only gem he has not found yet.

“Anything can be found,” he says. “It’s all here in the rock bars.”

He says a geologist friend once told him that because of the Ice Ages and continental shifts, he is liable to find almost anything on Earth along the lakeshore.

Merkley says he once found two pieces of black and gray quartz near Assineau that he immediately recognized from the Eldorado gold mine in the Northwest Territories, a place where he used to stop while flying north where he worked building Arctic char plants.

When weather grounded the flights, he says, crews would stop at Eldorado.

The rock left an impression on him.

Years later, he says, he recognized the same kind of material on the shore near home. For Merkley, that kind of discovery is part memory, part observation and part instinct sharpened by decades of paying attention.

Another memory still stands out just as clearly. Merkley says he found a blue lace agate near Assineau about 10 feet away from a 10-pound rock.

He began carving about 50 years ago, before work became too busy. Then, 22 years ago, he moved to Medicine Hat and joined a local rock club.

He says the club taught him a great deal and helped him begin making jewellery in a more serious way. Eight years ago, he moved back to the Slave Lake area, bringing that knowledge home with him.

Even now, he gets ammolite from southern Alberta, but the heart of his work remains tied to the north.
For Merkley, the shore is more than scenery. It is a source of work, memory and wonder.

Merkley’s work can be found at the Slave Lake Farmers Market.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader