About Us
About Us:
Julie and Tim moved to Bend in 1978. Julie’s first job was in a rock shop called Cascade Lapidary. Tim did silver and gold repair work part time before starting a landscape material business in Bend. Being Central Oregon locals, they benefited from their many talented lapidary friends over the years. These friends include; Fred Adams, Judy Elkins, the Quant family, and their dear friend Howard Ball. Always owning horses or mules and being in the mountains year round, Julie and Tim have hunted agate and jasper as well as winter meat extensively in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho.
For a very long time they have enjoyed a close relationships with Johann, a German trained machinist and also master machinist Ray Nelson. With their help, many years ago Tim and Julie launched CigarBoxRock Lapidary Equipment Company. In the early years in Bend many of the old timers kept the best of the best high grade agate in cigar boxes. Thus, the name stuck in Tim and Julie’s minds. Memories of Carey Plume, Priday Plume, Blue Biggs, Deschutes Jasper, and the list goes on and on for rocks and gems of Oregon. CigarBoxRock Lapidary specializes in the three largest vintage rock saw manufacturers; Frantom, Highland Park Manufacturing, and Nelson Saw Works. CigarBoxRock ships saws into all of the lower 48 states in the United States and are purchased by some of the finest Lapidaries in the world.
Tim & Julie
Owner
CigarBoxRock.com
Tim Larocco
Owner
CigarBoxRock.com
About Our Location
Historic Nels Andersen Farmhouse
We are co-located with Instant Landscaping, our office is in the Historic Nels Andersen Farmhouse. Nels was Danish immigrant who came to the United States in 1906. He started a homestead near Bend, Oregon in 1915. He married his wife Lillian and named his Dairy the Lilly Dairy. In 1929 the couple built the English Tudor styled home in the middle of their homestead. They operated their dairy until after World War II when they sold the property to the Bradetich family.
Tim and Julie Larocco purchased the farmhouse and completed a restoration of the house in 2002, winning an award for Outstanding Historical Renovation and Preservation. Fast forward to 2022 and the house was in the path of the Hwy 97 Realignment project. The Laroccos once more saved their historic home by moving it to its new location, 700 yds north of the original site to property that was also part of the Andersen Homestead.
What is Lapidary?
Lapidary is by definition the art of cutting and polishing stones. CigarBoxRock Lapidary (CigarBoxRock.com) is Wintertime Forest Products Lapidary Division. Co-located with Instant Landscaping facilities at 63291 Nels Anderson Road in Bend.
Lapidary in the Pacific Northwest is a growing hobby. Lapidary has a long history in Oregon dating back to just after World War II when it was popular to search for Uranium*. Collecting agates and jasper became an appealing hobby rivaling fishing.
Today, lapidary is again growing in popularity (one of our local rock clubs has over 300 members). A good analogy is Golf. A golfer needs the proper equipment and must purchase that equipment. We sell the equipment and supplies for lapidary. However, lapidary does not require a huge investment unlike building a golf course. Central Oregon is blessed with over 16 million acres of BLM Public Lands to collect agate, jasper, and obsidian as well as crystals. It is well documented that Oregon holds perhaps the richest deposits of the types of rocks that support the hobby and new lapidary business ventures. Oregon rock for decades has been very desirable. Recently the value of the most desirable Oregon rock has increased dramatically. It demands high prices by the pound and in some instances by the gram. Our lapidary “Rock Shop” operates as a dealer and distributor of quality cutting and polishing equipment, as well as supplies and rock.
During the 70’s and 80’s the lapidary hobby slowed in the Pacific Northwest. The Internet has expanded the interest in the hobby with many new collectors and lapidary related businesses growing strong.
What is exciting about our lapidary business is in the last few decades many of the “Rock Shops” are gone. CigarBoxRock Lapidary is one of largest (if not the largest) comprehensive lapidary businesses on the east side of the Cascades. In the last decade CigarBoxRock has sold lapidary equipment and supplies all over the USA and is well known.
Rockhounds At Eagle Rock
Vistaite Jasper from Crook County
Holley Blue set in Gold
One of the many vintage Slab Saws we have renewed for sale.
Slab of Rocky Butte Jasper
One of the Specimens in our Museum Collection
Blue Biggs Slab