Davis Creek Obsidian is a popular lapidary material because of its availability and beautiful rainbow colors. This material comes from Modoc County in far Northeastern California above the small town of Alturas.
This material shows multicolored layers, single colors and common grey and black. The pieces range from egg size to basketball size. Not every piece exhibits bright colors, but good-colored material is easy to find. The natural outer surface has a frosty or sandy texture and the fracture surfaces have a glassy conchoidal shape. The outside surfaces usually have visible lines extending all around the piece with varying distances between them that represent the color layers within the stone.