On The Rocks
How Tucson’s Event Started
BY BOB JONES
The first Tucson Gem and Mineral Show was a twoday show in the Keeling School’s cafeteria.
People who visit the Gem and Mineral Show in Tucson, Arizona, may not know how the event started. Countless local mineral clubs have weekend mineral shows all over the country but only one started small and in less than ten years gained international status.
BEFORE THE SHOW
Before there was a show in Tucson the city of Phoenix, about 100 miles north, was enjoying a fine annual gem and mineral show hosted by three local clubs: Mineralogical Society of Arizona, Air Research Club and Maricopa Lapidary Society. Advising this group was Arizona’s State mineralogist and Museum Curator, Arthur Flagg. The Phoenix Show was successful and attracted dealers and visitors from all over the west. After the Phoenix Show, many dealers would drive down to Tucson to visit the wholesale mineral dealers there to stock up. One of the dealers who attended the Phoenix Show, Bob Roots from Colorado, would go to Tucson to buy minerals after the show. He’d stay with Clayton Gibson of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society. It was Bob in 1954, who urged Clayton to get his Tucson club to have a mineral show.