This last Friday I went to a gem and mineral show hosted by the Michigan Gem and Mineral Society of Jackson at the Jackson County Fairgrounds. The society hosts these shows to help foster an interest in rocks and minerals in people who don’t know a lot about them, especially young people. This was the 49th annual show hosted by the society.
At gem and mineral shows there are usually dealers there selling fine specimens of rocks and minerals and at this one there were more than twenty dealers present. I would venture to say that at least one third of them sold minerals that had already been cut and polished, which I wasn’t too interested in, but the others sold rocks and minerals in their natural, uncut state. I came bearing a list of minerals that I wanted to buy: meerschaum, cassiterite, iolite, fire agate, cerussite, and a nodule of manganese metal. I found only the iolite and the fire agate (and of the two I bought only the iolite) but I also purchased a piece of mimetite. After asking about the meerschaum (which I’ve been looking for for a few years) and the cassiterite I learned that I have some rare and expensive tastes when it comes to minerals! There were a lot of other interesting minerals there too, a lot of which I would like to own, but I didn’t want to spend all of my money on them!
In addition to the minerals it was advertised that there were rock and mineral activities, but I did not participate in any of them and was to focused on the minerals to notice anything else.
I had a lot of fun at the show and would recommend them to anyone who is interested in rocks and minerals. P.S. keep your eyes open for future posts about mimetite and iolite!
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