Giant agate sparks intrigue

Paul Ward turned 90 this summer, and the story of how he landed the area's most well-known agate has changed. But only a little.

Shortly after the 108-pound agate began being celebrated in Moose Lake during the early 1980s, the story went that Ward was looking for agates in a local pit when he unearthed the monster he first thought was a root.

But last month, during a visit to his Sandstone, Minnesota residence by the Pine Knot, Ward recalled a different origin.

He was clearing land and building a family home in Wrenshall and needed gravel. He was in the process of collecting a load near what...