The KYANA Geological Society was founded in the early 1960s by Major Raymond Pruitt, a retired Army officer who returned to his hometown of Sligo, Kentucky after the Korean War and opened a roadside rock shop. Between 1960 and 1964, a small group of Kentucky–Indiana rockhounds who regularly visited “the Major’s” shop began discussing the idea of forming a club. Their first meetings took place at the shop and later rotated among members’ homes. In 1964, the group applied for and received a charter from the Eastern Federation, with an initial membership of about twenty people. KYANA officially incorporated with the state of Kentucky on March 31, 1966. The name “KYANA” reflects the club’s regional roots: KY for Kentucky and ANA for Indiana. Several founding members remain involved with the society today.

For more than four decades, KYANA has contributed significantly to the understanding of the geological history of the greater Louisville metropolitan area. The society hosts monthly meetings with guest lectures open to the public, members-only field trips, and an annual show featuring local materials as well as minerals, fossils, and gemstones from around the world. When the University of Louisville operated a Geology Department, KYANA provided an annual scholarship to assist a senior geology student with Geology Camp expenses. The organization has also supported the Louisville Science Center, the Louisville Art Club, the Falls of the Ohio, and even hosted a symposium on the Western Kentucky–Southern Illinois Fluorite District.

In more recent years, KYANA has provided ongoing support to the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum in Marion, Kentucky, and helped fund the educational video A Saturday Morning Rock Hunt, produced and hosted by KYANA member David Shuffet. The program premiered on KET (Kentucky Educational Television) and is now available to schools across Kentucky and southern Indiana. Several episodes of KET’s Kentucky Life have featured topics tied to KYANA, including “Digging Into the Past” (season 10), “Mineral Wealth” (season 13), and “The Joy of Rocks” (season 5).

KYANA is a diverse, welcoming organization with interests spanning fossils, minerals, lapidary arts, faceting, silversmithing and goldsmithing, bead stringing, precious metal clay (PMC), flintknapping, local geological history, environmental sciences, and more. Most members are enthusiastic hobbyists, alongside a number of professional geologists, engineers, and scientists.

The society’s activities include monthly meetings, monthly field trips to quarries, rock exposures, caves, and museums, and even the occasional extended expedition—such as a trip into the Baja Peninsula in search of minerals and gold. KYANA also conducts an annual auction to raise scholarship funds and sponsors at least one member each year to attend a lapidary arts center or related class. In addition, the society maintains a small library of geology and hobby-related books for the benefit of its members.