Earth Science and Natural Science Research

Tucson Mineral Show
February 2003, Tucson, AZ - Page 2 of 5
Rick Dillhoff, Sammamish Washington

Chinese fossil dealers probably were the largest single block at the Vagabond Inn again this year but they had little new material. The sizable contingent of Green River fossil producers probably took second place. It is a tribute to the richness of this deposit that so many beautiful fossil fish specimens continue to come out. The best Green River eye candy was next door at the Mineral and Fossil Co-op where there was a plate with two beautiful palm fronds, a large tropical umbrella leaf of some sort and a crocodile for sale. All the usual suspects were at the show but too much of the material looked awfully familiar if you were there last year. In the petrified wood world the closest to something new is a flood of tree fern trunks from Brazil. There was enough Madagascar wood around to build a log house. Mammoth tusks aren't really new but quite a number of complete tusks in excellent condition from Russia were offered for the first time this year.

Chinese mineral dealers also topped the bill at the Executive Inn. It seems like most of them buy from the same assortment of localities so you need to look in lots of rooms before you decide on your favorite specimen. Beautiful quartz and barite from Jinkouhe was common as was quartz and pyrite on fluorite from Shang Bao. The Shang Bao locality produces interesting scepters that are evidently the result of etching away carbonates that impeded growth on the lower prisms of the quartz crystals. This locality also produces very nice quartz Japan Law twins associated with chlorite and pyrite cubes but too many were damaged when they were collected. A few of the red quartz and hematite specimens from China looked a little too red this year. On at least one specimen you could see clear bases on the crystals that evidently hadn't gotten completely dunked in the dye. Besides the Chinese there were dealers from every corner of the world but fewer and fewer American dealers are setting up at the Executive Inn these days. Many dealers reported problems getting specimens into the country this year and a few rooms were empty as a result.

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