The highlight of the mineral and gemstone events every February is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®. This is a very large show that takes place in the spacious Tucson Convention Center, and it is the grand finale of the myriad of mineral and gemstone events throughout the city. From the end of January through mid-February, the city of Tucson is bustling with activity related to minerals and gemstones. Although the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®, also known as the "main show" continues to lose important dealers to other more permanent mineral venues throughout the city, it still has a very strong presence of dealers as well as the best and most expansive exhibits of any mineral show on earth.
As far as activity in Tucson, with the InnSuites show now a relic of the past, the Mineral City show and the surrounding area have become the main center of activity for serious collectors. There are also the more permanent, year-round galleries that have opened up with several prominent dealers changing the way they handle Tucson.
I arrived at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® on opening day on Thursday, February 9. Foot traffic was heavy, and there were many amazing exhibits. The show was more spacious with many of the big dealers no longer at the show, but the show staff did a good job of spacing the exhibits and dealers strategically so the void wasn't as noticeable as it was last year.
This first post of Tucson 2023 introduces the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®. The theme of this year's show was “SILICA: Agates and Opals and Quartz, Oh My!” This translated into minerals of the quartz family, and there was plenty of fabulous Quartz, Chalcedony, and Agates to be seen. (There wasn't much in the way of Opals though.)
In addition to the main show, I'll post a show report for the Mineral City show and the surrounding area which includes the Just Rocks show and the La Fuente show. I also visited the Tucson Fine Mineral Gallery and will include a post on that.
This page will serve as an index for the main show. I'll be creating posts for the Dealer minerals, display exhibits, and display minerals. Stay tuned and check back for additional links added to this page.
I am pleased to announce that going forward, we'll be using an Instagram gallery to display our photos of our news and show reports. This will be easier for us to manage and allow the photos to be shared with a much broader audience.
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This years theme of the 2023 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® was “Silica – Agates and Opals and Quartz, Oh My!” There was an abundance of fantastic Quartz crystals filling many display cases, as well as many fine Agates of all different varieties. Opal was not well represented, considering its rarity relative to Quartz and Agate, but there were some scattered specimens to be found. Overall this was a great theme and I loved some of the minerals chosen. Please see the pictures of some of the highlighted minerals on display below.
The University of Arizona Mineral Museum recently moved to its new home in the historic Pima County Courthouse. This was major news for the mineral community, with the opening of a new, world-class gem and mineral museum in downtown Tucson.
The museum was previously housed on the campus of the University of Arizona, in the lower level of the Flandrau Planetarium Science Center. I had been to this museum several times in the past while visiting Tucson for the mineral shows, and have made museum reports here on the site regarding their mineral collection.
In August 2021, the museum officially opened in its new location in the Pima County Courthouse in the center of the city. It is a brand new facility with state-of-the-art exhibits. The minerals on display are plentiful, and the displays are clean, modern, and have excellent lighting and signage.
The official name of the new museum is the Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum. The museum celebrated its grand opening in February 2022 to coincide with the Tucson shows. I wasn't in Tucson yet for the opening ceremony, but was still able to visit the museum on my trip in Tucson shortly after its opening.
I was impressed by the quality of the collection and the fantastic displays. I took hundreds of pictures and selected my favorite photos for this post. I will make two blog posts for my museum visit - this first for the worldwide exhibits, and the second focused on minerals of Arizona. Here is the first:
Approaching the Pima County Courthouse and Museum Building in Downtown Tucson
Courtyard of the Inner Part of the Spanish-Styled Building
Apollo 15 Lunar Basalt from the Moon, Collected by Astronaut James Irwin
Calcite with Oriented Pyrite from Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China
Variscite Polished Nodule from Fairfield, Utah
Giant Stibnite Cluster from the Xikuangshan Sb Deposit, Lengshuijian, Hunan Prov., China
Complex Calcite Crystal from Tsumeb, Namibia
Fantastic Emerald Crystal from Swat, Khyber Province, Pakistan
Fantastic Amethyst "Peace Sign" from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Radiating Elbaite Tourmaline Crystal Cluster from the Cruzeiro Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Sulfur Crystals in Drill Core from Big Hill, Texas
Dioptase Crystals from Altyn-Tyub, Kazakhstan
Calcite with Dioptase Inclusions from Tsumeb, Namibia
Gold from the Crystalline-Alabama Clain, Tuolumne Co., California
Giant Silver Boulders Recently Found in Globe, Gila County, Arizona
This post is the second one about the New Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum at the University of Arizona. Our first post on the museum focused on their worldwide collection of minerals. This next post features the minerals of Arizona in the museum collection.
Arizona is one of the most prominent states regarding mineral collection and history. There are numerous classic localities with an abundance of fantastic mineral specimens coming from these locations. I therefore included a special post on the Arizona minerals in Arizona's most significant permanent display of minerals.
Glauberite Crystal from Camp Verde Salt Mine, Yavapai, Arizona
Gold Crystal Nugget near Bagdad, Yavapai, Arizona
Display Case of Fine Azurites from Bisbee, Arizona
Display Case of Fine Malachites from Bisbee, Arizona
Wulfenite from the Glove Mine, Amado, Santa Cruz Co., Arizona
Vanadinite from the Old Yuma Mine, Tucson Mountains, Pima Co., Arizona
Wulfenite from the Red Cloud Mine, La Paz Co., Arizona
Stalagmitic Calcite from the Holbrook Mine, Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona
Wulfenite from the Defiance Mine, Gleeson, Cochise Co., Arizona
Malachite Pseudomorph after Azurite from the Czar Mine, Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona
During the past several years, the center of mineral activity in Tucson has shifted north to the Mineral City area. Various satellite shows and tents surround the area, with perhaps the biggest being the La Fuente Show. The full name is the La Fuente de Piedras Mineral Show, and it is located in the vicinity of a well-known Mexican restaurant of the same name across the street from Mineral City. The restaurant is no longer operating, but its iconic pink building is very recognizable and has become the home of Jewel Tunnel Imports, a large dealership founded by the late mineral icon Rock Currier (yes, that was his real name.)
Adjacent to the former La Fuente restaurant is a large tent with several additional prominent dealers, including the Arkenstone, John Cornish Minerals, and Mineral Classics. I arrived here later in the day, and didn't make it to the actual La Fuente building due to a lack of time. I only was able to attend the large tent adjacent to the former restaurant. However, I still was able capture some great mineral photos from the tent to document for this report.
La Fuente Mineral Show and Adjacent Tent
Large Gemmy Diopside Crystals from Jungaluk, Sar-e-Sang, Koksha Valley, Afghanistan
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
Large Gemmy Diopside Crystals from Jungaluk, Sar-e-Sang, Koksha Valley, Afghanistan
(This piece has been photographed in Minrec "What's New in Minerals" 2022)
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
Large Gemmy Ruby Crystal in Marble (Blue Calcite) from Mogok, Burma
Specimen exhibited on the Mineralogical Record Cover
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
Large Ruby Crystal in Marble from Mogok, Burma
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
Large Fluorapatite Crystal from a new find in Fulford, Eagle Co., Colorado
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
Another view of Fluorapatite from a new find in Fulford, Eagle Co., Colorado
Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics
