Rockhound anyone?

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Chasper

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I'm off to Tucson again in a few days for the annual rock, fossil and mineral shows. It has become an annual pilgrimage for my sons (ages 16 & 13) and I. The collective Tucson shows are the biggest rock shows in the world; about 10 orders of magnitude greater than the next biggest show. http://www.colored-stone.com/tsg/show_info.cfm

We are primarily mineral collectors, the boys have several hunderd different mineral speciments. We also look for a few really good fossils. I'm always on the lookout for carving stone, still trying to find something that is soft enough to turn but tough enough to not chip easily when it is on a pen.

Are any of you rockhounds?
 
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Gerry,
Enjoy the show.. a few years back when I was living in Tucson, I worked for a company that did some imports and storage for the mineral show... we handled some of the move in and display set up, and as one of the managers at the forwarding company, I got to visit the show. Fabulous stuff there. I don't know much about the rocks and minerals, but I was in awe at some of what I saw. One of our clients was from Russia and they were displaying some geodes that must have been 2 or 3 feet in diameter..

I like to look at them, but that is where my knowledge ends.
 
See you there Gerry. :) Heading down to spend Saturday there. I will be looking for some lapidary equipment and stuff to make pens with. Never attended this show, just heard gobs of good things about it. Also good excuse to get out of town and visit my niece at UofA. [8D]
 
Becca,
I'm not going to be able to get to Quartzite this year, I actually prefer the spectacle at Quartzite. I'd love to go there with a big truck and trailer some year, but I already have a yard full of rocks and wood. I'm more interested in knapping and carving stone, my sons are the mineral collectors.

Anthony,
As I remember, one of the big tents at the Tucson Electric Park show is full of lapidary equipment. Other than that I think it is scattered all over the shows. The Electric Park shows open on Saturday morning. I'm going to start at Globe-X Days Inn on Saturday morning and work my way up and down the frontage road from there.

Chuck,
We always go visit the Russian guys for fossils and staurolite. My sons think we should have a cave bear in the basement....at least they don't expect a mammoth.

My younger son is so obsessed with his minerals that he can rattle off the chemical make-up for over 200 minerals, he knows their crystal family, where they are most often found and lots of other properties. He carries a list with him at all time of the minerals he is looking for to add to his collection. I asked him for a list of the minerals in his collection so I would know when I look at something if he already has it, and he didn't need a list, its in his head. There are more rockpiles than woodpiles in our yard.
 
I don't know what part of the country you are in but you might consider taking a trip to Arkansas. We are not rockhounds but I took a couple of the boys to search for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park and we had a ton of fun. One of them even found a very small diamond.
 
Posted - Jan 30 2008 : 8:25:37 PM
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I don't know what part of the country you are in but you might consider taking a trip to Arkansas. We are not rockhounds but I took a couple of the boys to search for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park and we had a ton of fun. One of them even found a very small diamond.
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Mark, I'm in Indiana and we made a trip to Arkansas last summer. We dug for crystals in Story, Mt Ida and Jessyville, then we visited Crater of Diamonds for a day. I suspect it will be an annual for us. Hopefully it won't be 105 degrees the next time we do digging there.
 
Yeah, count me in, I have a MSc in Geology and worked as a field geologist for about 8 years .... I have a large rock and mineral collection of the Canadian Shield in my basement!:D

Bancroft Ontario has a large Gemboree every year in early August. This is a Canadian mecca for mineral hounds, 80% of the minerals that occur in the Canadian Shield are found in the Bancroft area.

http://www.bancroftdistrict.com/Tourism/rock_hound_gem.php
 
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