The Man Who Discovered the U.P.'s Glowing Stones

Brimley — If you’re on the north shore of Lake Superior, it’s common to see people combing the beach at night with UV flashlights. They’re searching for rocks that glow neon orange.

Thousands of years ago, these rocks were part of a mountain that a glacier had flattened. They were then dragged from Canada across what is now Lake Superior before being deposited in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The rocks sat in the icy waters of Lake Superior for thousands of years after the glaciers retreated. It wasn’t until 2017 that Erik Rintamaki, a man, was out at night with an ultraviolet flashlight and discovered the glowing stones.

Erik, a longtime rock collector, collects agates, which happen to glow under blacklight. It was on one of his searches that he found the glowing rocks that would become the 386th mineral identified in Michigan.

Erik named his discovery after where he lives and called them Yooperlites. He added “lite” to the end because they glow.

I drove Up North to meet him, and we took his truck down a dirt two-track deep into the wilderness to a remote beach that he said was loaded with Yooperlites. For miles, we bounced down the dirt road through budding spring landscapes.

The snow was just starting to melt, and low-lying parts of the trail were covered with water. We tried to drive through it, but it ended up being much deeper than either of us expected. His truck slowed and eventually stopped, its tires sinking into the soft sandy trail.

Luckily, I had a big camping knife, so we started cutting limbs from nearby trees and stuffing them under his tires. After a few hours of work, we were able to build a runway through the spring slop and free the truck.

When we arrived at the beach, it seemed desolate and wild. Lake Superior waves were crashing into rocky forested cliffs. The sun was setting, and light from a lighthouse was flashing through the trees. Erik kept scooping up vibrant, glowing stones with constellation patterns and intricate striations, while I wasn’t finding anything.

There is definitely a technique to hunting for these rocks. In the daytime, they just look like any other rock on the beach, so you have to go out at night so your flashlight isn’t competing with the sun. If you walk too fast, you’ll go right past them. In a few hours of searching, we only covered a couple hundred yards.

Unless you have a super bright flashlight, you can only search the area directly in front of you. Many times, the rocks will be partially buried or obscured by something, so you might only catch a little glimpse. Once Erik made sure I was doing everything correctly, I started to see them everywhere.

It’s a good feeling to set out on a mission, overcome obstacles, and succeed. I was excited and picked up every one that I found with the intention of bringing them all home with me. But after a while, I had such a large collection that they were becoming difficult to carry. I dumped out my pack and only took a few of the best ones with me.

The pastime of hunting for Yooperlites has exploded since Erik’s discovery. On a warm summer night on Michigan’s north shore, you’re almost guaranteed to see people walking the beaches with their UV flashlights.