2006/02 Southwest USA trip (NM-AZ) - Tucson Gem and Mineral Show |
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We drove across Tucson and out of the city on the Catalina Highway, up Mount Lemmon, the huge mountain that overlooks Tucson from the north. We left most of the traffic behind as we climbed up past thousands of Saguaro cactus and into the Coronado National Forest. Molino Basin, the first campground we came to had room, so we 
took a site with a great view of the surrounding mountains. For once we had enough time to sit outside with a beer and watch the sun go down.
Thursday February 9th
There was much excitement amongst the weather forecasters the previous evening as it looked like Tucson was going to get some rain, the first in a hundred days. Sure enough, it was cloudy in the morning, but we didn’t get any rain until we 
drove down the mountain and even then it was just a few drops. We didn’t care if it rained as we were on our way to the Tucson Convention Center and the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. This gem show is about the biggest in the USA, and, as we were there at the right time, we couldn’t turn down the opportunity. This year’s show was sponsored by the Canadian government, so Canadian gems were the main theme.
We blundered our way through downtown Tucson and then found the TCC. The entrance to the show had a
few governmental and society stands, including an interesting guy from Nunavut who was promoting gem 
collecting and tourism in the far Canadian north. There was also an Australian from the Pilbara mining area who’d brought along a gigantic piece of tiger eye, perhaps four feet wide. He didn’t have anything else, no stand, no banner, just a bloody great rock!
Most of these stands seemed a bit amateurish but then we looked through the windows to the main hall below with its 22 aisles of exhibitors. There were as many rocks and gems and jewelery and fossils as anyone could desire. You could spend anything between 10c and a million dollars. Security was tight and most of Tucson’s police force seemed to be there. There 
was even one policeman assigned to look after a single very rare meteorite, one that had come through the atmosphere without tumbling, so it was burned into a perfect parabola on its entry side. It’s hard to see how 
anyone could steal it without a fork lift! The exhibitors came from just about every country in the world, with rocks from even more. We spent most of the day there, but somehow came away without buying any rocks. We did however find out about a whole bunch of new places to go and dig up our own rocks.
It turned out that the TCC was only one of the places staging the show. Other parts of the show, those for dealers, were scattered across Tucson in hotels and halls. We passed a string of marquees labeled “SriLanka”, “Peru”, and so on.
.Next.