Family-owned Park City Jewelers delights in rare stones, dinosaur bones

Photo: A Peak Inside Park City Jewelers – photo: courtesy Park City Jewelers

PARK CITY, Utah – Park City Jewelers on Historic Main Street is a family-owned business run by father and son Ken and Cole Whipple. Rare stones, dinosaur bones, and intricate gem art is a family tradition that the Whipples bring to life daily in their family-friendly shop.

Generational love of gem art was passed down to Ken Whipple at age five from his grandpa, Max Peacock. “He took me into the desert looking for rocks,” Ken says, describing his earliest gem-related experience. Ken began making jewelry at a young age when his grandpa introduced him to cutting rocks.

Ken, a Utah native, carved out his destiny at 16. He came to the Park City Kimball Arts Festival in 1976 and decided to own a jewelry store on Main Street someday. He spent 17 years building skills and inventory before purchasing his store on Main Street in 1993. Nearly 15 years after Ken started Park City Jewelers, his son, Cole Whipple, began working in the shop.

“After spending a couple of years helping my dad around the shop, I found that there was something about it I enjoyed,” says Cole. That’s when Cole buckled down and found a computer-aided design (CAD) class. After learning to work with CAD, Cole became a partner in the business, explaining that “That is when I knew Park City Jewelers [was] the place for me. I love it here. Plus, I get to work with my dad each day, and what could be better than that?”

At Park City Jewelers, families are welcome. Ken, the father of 10 and grandfather of 14, loves kids. Children of all ages are invited downstairs to the jewelry creation studio. Ken delights in sharing his love for gemstones with little ones. “[I have] a bucket of geodes and will cut one in half for kids, just to see the light in their eyes when they look inside a new rock,” he says.

Special treatment for children and families is just one of the ways Park City Jewelers sets itself apart. The shop is renowned for its unique creations. “We offer people things they have never seen,” says Ken. In addition to displays of jewelry crafted with dinosaur bones, meteorites, Megalodon teeth, and rare stones like Utah’s red emerald, Park City Jewelers does dozens of custom jobs a day.

“We pride ourselves on doing a killer job,” Ken says. “We do the whole process; design the pieces, mix the metal, and cast the pieces. The basement is a manufacturing shop.” Every creation purchased from Park City Jewelers comes with a lifetime manufacturing warranty.

Ken uses a handmade approach to jewelry, while Cole uses CAD to create pieces. Despite their different techniques, Ken and Cole share a favorite medium: dinosaur bone.

Park City Jewelers is bursting with unique Park City designs and treasures, plus a lifetime warranty. The Park City Jewelers 2022 -2023 catalog makes holiday shopping for jewelry lovers easy.