Tuscon Gem Show Recap - 2017

Legend has it, the Tucson Gem Show started off as a collection of amateur rock hounds and fossil enthusiast meeting in the Arizona desert once per year to trade and sell. Overtime (and prior to the internet mind you), this evolved into the month long city take over it is today. If you’ve never been, it’s difficult to understand. Each room in the cities vast collection of motels gets transformed into a pop-up shop. Some sell gold nuggets, some dinosaur heads, there’s a least 15 dedicated simply to meteorite specimens.

Don’t get me wrong, the real fun is sifting through the main areas to find the brightest emerald or the deepest tourmaline, a glowing ruby or fascinating opal. But there’s something to be said about just wandering the random motels, embracing them with the giddiness only tourists obtain. I saw the prettiest Alexandrite I’ve ever seen and wouldn’t be surprised if I never see a prettier one. The color was vivid, the change extreme, and at 5.56 carats it has a nice heft to it. Ultimately though, it was under lock and key and I wasn’t permitted to have an extended photoshoot with it.

Look at this geode. It’s huge, a good foot taller than Gordon (who is 6’1’’ish). The scale picture doesn’t show the crystals well but look at this.

I know I’ve always skewed nerdy, but these fossils (below) are awesome. I dare you to find me a cooler paperweight or a desk piece. Not going to happen. We actually picked up a few select pieces (not pictured above) this year; I highly recommend coming by the store and checking them out.  Nature can do wondrous things. It can preserve history into rock so we can get an inkling of how the world worked eons ago. Under needlessly difficult circumstances it can even gift us with diamonds. That’s the real treat of the Tucson show; you get to explore those endless bounties of nature. It’s a show I look forward to each year, and I’m already counting down the days till the 2018 event!