One of the largest venues in the
Tucson Shows arena is the 22nd Street Gem, Fossil, and Mineral Sow
located near the intersection of I-10 and 22nd Street. The Show has an extra-large center tent
(835' x 100') with smaller, but large, adjacent tents on each end. The south end tent is the Showcase tent with carpeting, stage lighting, ten foot high modular walls and high end material. The north tent is smaller and with only a couple of larger dealers (one wholesale only). I have not specifically counted vendors, but
my estimate is ~325-350. It is also one of the few venues that advertises via
billboards scattered around town, bus shelters, etc.. I
would also say it has the most crappy and roughest parking around (and they
charge to park).
The center tent is mighty large
with 6 rows of vendors stretching the length and contains beads, mineral
specimens, fossils, salt lamps, jewelry of all kinds ranging from junk to
several tens of thousands of dollars, paintings, carved figures, and lots of
other “stuff.” Over the last decade it seems as if
specimen dealers decrease in number each year.
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| If there are two items that are widely available in the 22nd Street tent they are beads and amethyst crystals. |
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| This specimen, exhibited by Trebold Paleontology of Woodland Park, Colorado, was worth the visit. Quetzalcoatlus northopi, collected in Texas, is a Cretaceous flying reptile with a wing-span of 33 feet. The unknown photobomber gives a good idea on the height. |
So, if one slowly traversed the
three major long aisles and examined goods on either side a visitor might spend
the better part of a day immersed in looking and spending. However, I was more interested in examining
mineral specimens so tended to skip the beads and other paraphernalia. I did stop to visit a few of the vendors
displaying vertebrate fossils since some fantastic specimens were available for
sale.
As for buying, I was amazed to
locate a nice thumbnail of wulfenite (lead molybdate) collected from Utah. The specimen, in a perky box, was marked $30
but after a conversation the price was lowered to $5, something more in my
range. Evidently a solitary Utah
specimen was not in great demand as this was Arizona and the hype was to buy
Red Cloud wulfenite. Short story—I left
happy, really happy, since Utah wulfenite is not common on the mineral market.
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| Window pane, orange wulfenite crystals (notice the ghost "growth patterns in tabs on left margins) with tiny yellow-green crystals of mimetite (lead arsenate chloride). Width FOV ~ 2.0 cm. |
The major hypogene ore was galena (lead
sulfide) that had a high silver content.
I could not locate information about total production; however, the mine
was not a significant producer. Today it
is best known for the magnificent tabs of orange to orange-yellow wulfenite
although I am uncertain about current collecting or claims.
REFERENCES CITED
Western Mining History, 2019: https://westernmininghistory.com/
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| There is color in Arizona other than wulfenite. |