OUTDOOR ROCK and MINERAL SHOWS part 2
DONNA BY BARRELS OF AGATE AT DESERT GARDENS
QUARTZSITE ARIZONA the DESERT GARDENS SHOW is a semi permanent show, in that it runs for all of January and February every year, with about 250 dealers set up in a trailer park setting. They all supply their own tents and tables, and set up beside their RVs. Quartzsite Arizona and most of the western U.S. are just the opposite of Ontario in that it is about 80 percent lapidary rough rock and supplies, beads and jewelry, and about 20 percent minerals. Desert Gardens is home base for tons of rough cutting rock, 5 or 6 Australian dealers have enough 45 gallon barrels of Agates and Jaspers to supply most of the cutters in the world for years. There are usually several substantial Mexican dealers of my favourite cutting material Crazy Lace Agate. One dealer usually brings enough to make a pile about 30 by 15 feet. Most of these dealers are also the miners of the rock, and the cutting material is brought up from their claims.
This is not a show that you can rush through, because all the material for sale is just so varied and interesting. When you go to a show in Ontario you might find one dealer with a few slabs, down at the Gardens there are probably 50 dealers with slabs and each one could have dozens of tubs full of them, every kind of cutting material you can imagine . Because I cut and polish, I drive Donna to distraction by carefully going through each tub of slabs trying to find that perfect piece. They usually have them in water so I have to let them dry off to see all the flaws in a slab. All the time feeling an icy stare at my back from the woman who is bored to death and trying to find a place to rest her back, while I’m oohing and awing over the merits of some small over priced slab of Agate. Strange as it might seem, I also get that same exasperated look when I’m pawing through a knee high pile of Agate chunks, trying to find the perfect piece to slab.
tables of cutting material
There are some dealers selling lapidary equipment. Diamond Pacific has a huge tent, and if you look there are others that are Diamond Pacific dealers at home but come to the show and sell them cheaper. There are mineral dealers there, but they are usually wholesalers and if you want to by flats and a large volume of one mineral this is the place to go. Many of these dealers pack up and move to Tucson and their prices rise substantially higher over there. Since there is such a wide variety of materials to look at it usually takes days to see it all: fossils, cave formations, jewelry; you name it, it’s there.
If you can’t find what your looking for at Desert Gardens, just down the road is Tyson Wells, another show that has wholesale dealers in big metal sheds selling Brazilian Amethyst Geodes, Agate slabs, polished and carved stone by the ton, beads and beading supplies, more Mexicans selling geodes, rough rock and a huge assortment of minerals, plus another 300 hundred or so vendors selling everything under the sun. The vendors there change every few weeks, so if your down there for all of January you have to keep going back. This only about half the dealers in town as there are 2 other large Flea Markets on the other side of the Hwy, you would need a very thick book to list all the items you can buy in Quartzsite. Truly a unique town and Rockhound haven. PS. I keep telling Donna to stay back in the trailer if she’s bored and her back’s sore, but I think she’s just scared to turn me loose in a lapidary workers dream world. The only thing I regret while I’m down there. ” I’m not a Millionaire”?
