Category Archives: Quartzsite Rock Shows

Quartzsite Rock Shows: What did we find?

I thought I’d show you some of the things we bought in Quartzsite. I sometimes buy exceptional Cabochons cut by others, especially Malachite or other minerals that contain hazardous materials. I also often purchase high quality, unusual or exceptional cabs. These might be bargains, but at other times the Cabs are so notable I pay up so our customers can purchase and enjoy the rare, unusual, and exceptional.

Bonnie helped lure me into the Bumblebee Jasper and the Amethyst rocks. The Malachite was all my pick. I’ll get them made just in time for St. Patricks Day (or any other day).

Really exceptional Malachite. The large teardrop in the middle is 3″h x 2 1/4″w. Awesome!

I had to make this one within an hour of retuning from the trip to Quartzsite. The pendant size in 3″ x 2 1/4″ and the reason it looks a little odd is because he is a wild guy and the lighting got distorted by the stone which is faceted. I loved it and wore it to dinner to show my friends.

Very nice Bumblebee.

Orange Sodalite

Seraphanite and Sunstone from Russia. This material is awesomely silky.

I can make some great jewelry from this beautiful Amethyst I found in a tub of slabs.

Pink Amethyst Lace of exceptional quality.

Russian Tektites. Tektites are natural glass formed and ejected from a meteorite strike.

Unakite, a stone found in many places including our Great Lakes beaches.

I came home tired from driving, but excited to start making jewelry, and so I did!

QIA Pow Wow at Quartzsite 2018

The QIA Powwow in Quartzsite

Picking Megalodon Teeth at the Powwow

Vendors located in the QIA Building.

Gem Grade Rainbow Petrified Wood

Bumblebee (not) Jasper

Blue Cornetite in Chrysocolla on Heterogenite from the Congo

I did not know Dino’s wore armor.

Tubs of slabs as far as the eyes can see.

This seemed like Steampunk meeting Punk

About 500 Vendors here at the Powwow

The dealer was proud of his Rainbow Wood. It was nice gem grade stuff.

Picking one of a thousand tubs.

Yep, I’m on it

a great slab of Pink Amethyst Lace; bought this one.

A beautiful desert drive. Between Quartzsite and Parker.

The QIA Pow Wow Rock Show has been operating for almost 50 years, offering rockhounds a down-home type of rock show to find cabs, slabs, stone, and equipment. A fledgling Quartzsite Improvement Association hosted a small rock show back then which has become a sort of Mecca, with people returning year after year.

Many other locales in Quartzsite have rocks and minerals. One of the largest sellers of rough rock are T-Rock, at the very west end of Main Street. 50 gallon drums and tables piled high with rough rock of all kinds fill their lot. The prices are very fair and Mike and Teresa are top notch people (From the U.P. of Michigan).

We walked our legs to exhaustion at the Pow Wow and then a quick stop at T-Rocks, and a trip down one aisle at Desert Gardens. We bought one rock there and left. We were tired out!

T-Rock

Lots of Rough at T-Rock

Bonnie looking for rough rock.

Please check out our hand crafted stone jewelry featuring Greenstone (Chlorastrolite) Michigan’s State Gemstone, Petoskey Stone Michigan’s State Stone, Lake Superior Agate Minnesota’s State Gemstone, Gems from the Copper Country of Michigan, and semi-precious stones from around the world. These are created with wire artistry by Don Reed and make wonderful gifts for stone lovers–Check them out!

Quartzsite Rock Shows 2018

A beautiful desert drive.

Getting to the Quartzsite Rock Shows

It seems like forever driving through the desert from Tucson to Quartzsite, but when you crest the hill on I-10 east of Quartzsite Arizona, and look out at a white desert, you know you’re there, and treasures may soon be found. The white I’m referring to are all the RV’s dry camped on the BLM property surrounding Quartzsite. Quartzsite is the January destination for rockhounds, the home of numerous Quartzsite rock shows. The small town is the last vestige of civilization in western Arizona, 20 or so miles from the California Border on I-10.

We do not take our RV, as its easier to rent a Hotel Room in Parker, 35 miles north. Other rockhounds might spend the entire winter in their RV’s in the Quartzsite area.

Not many people out at the Gardens today, but we found some treasures.

A typical tailgate booth at Desert Gardens.

You can never tell what might be in a tub.

You can not attend all the shows at one time in Quartzsite. This year we decided on dates encompassing the Desert Gardens Show, , and the QIA Pow Wow. The Pow Wow began in 1965 and is sponsored by the QIA (Quartzsite Improvement Association). About 500 vendors sell their goods on the QIA Grounds, making it the largest show in Quartzsite. Plenty of rocks, minerals, jewelry, beads, and lapidary things will make a rockhound happy. Some of the other shows in town are more of a flea market with all kinds of stuff, so we are looking forward to this rock-themed show.

The Desert Garden Rock Show

One dealer had plenty of Ocean Jasper left.

Some really fine Chrysocolla cabs.

The Desert Gardens show is far from a garden. This show covers a few acres of flat, barren desert where the vendors’ tailgate or sell from tents located near their RVs. Careful haggling might produce some happy bargains here. I also like to pick the brains of the vendors (often miners that have brought their finds to the desert). We always look for things we’ve not seen, are rare, or no longer being mined.

Bonnie and I are rock pickers and love rooting through other collectors slabs, rocks, and discards, to find those hidden treasures. The time it takes is not important when it comes to rock picking, it is the thrill of the hunt! Sometimes we find a new rock, but more often it is a small piece or cabochon of a familiar rock that we know and our customer like.

What we bought so far…

Today we mostly bought cabochons and just a few slabs. I usually cut my own stones, but malachite is something I don’t like to cut because of the toxic chemicals in it. And small earring sets are tedious and time consuming, so we bought some of those matched sets today. We got some crazy lace, mookaite jasper, and rhodochrosite.

Enjoy our adventures over the next couple days. They’ll be loads of pictures and exciting bits. I ran out of battery on my camera but I’ll do better tomorrow.

Quartzstite-Day 3 ( The Weirdness Factor)

Totems

I really was not sure what this was??? A long wig and horns on a walking stick. Now that has the weirdness factor for sure.

My off-center sense of humor is at its’ peak when we go to Quartzsite, Arizona. The rock shows are great, but the flea market areas are where the real strange things appear.

1950 Dode Wayfarer with a 440 at a hot dog stand

We saw a row of vendors where you could buy a box of bananas and get your concealed weapons permit in the next tent, and a strange beer drinking tent, tools, water filters for the RV, LED lights, knife, Bushnell binoculars, a 1950 Dodge Wayfarer parked next to a hot dog stand. By the way, the old rusty Dodge had a 440, and the owner assured me it would get up and go! Enjoy my pictures.

A truck seat would look nice in the waiting room at Paul’s RV.

Good Ground Trading, the most eclectic, unusual store in town.

Around the corner is a flea-market type area which we explored. The end of the street had an eccentric eclectic treasure shop called Good Ground Trading Company, motto, “Where the Far East meets the Old West”. Buddha, a large Incredible Hulk model, old signs, glass fishing floats from Japan, oxen yokes, pickup trucks converted into benches, large metal buckets with holes in them, and lots of stuff. Nearby was a stop for custom-made advertising flags, Vermont maple syrup and jelly, old-style metal signs, an old cooking stove, you name it. True to form, Bonnie bought a couple of used books–you can never have too many of those. That vendor was from Paradise, Michigan, so we had to all have a chat.

Quilts made by real Chinese Amish

The Moroccans have a sense of humor

You can get any rusty, artificially old sign here. The owner is nearby decorating cowskulls with rocks.

Bins full of rusty items

Bone Yard

Quartzsite-The Rocks We Found

I’m continuing my adventures in Quartzite today by showing what I found. Some rocks I just admired, while others I brought back to cut. Not much chit-chat in this blog, just fine pictures. The first series of pictures are things we saw:

Why did not I think of this? Thow a few random pebbles in some dirt, add a digging stick, and you don't have to waste time going out in the desert picking rocks.

Why did not I think of this? Throw a few random pebbles in some dirt, add a digging stick, and you don’t have to waste time going out in the desert picking rocks. Great for the city kids, I guess.

Pink Opalite

Even those Moroccans have a sense of humor.

Bonnie was looking at all this Turquoise and dyed Magnesite.

Tables of pretty malachite, some contained azurite.

A big ultra rare Wingate Pass Agate. $1200 and worth it. I make jewelry and seldom collect specimens, but I was real tempted by this beauty!

This series of pictures is some of what I now own.

Bumblebee (Not Jasper) cab. this one was ripe with silica and looks like the end of the world.

More Gembone

Dinosaur Bone–The red stuff; Just look at those Cell Agates. WOW factor for sure.

Mostly Royal Imperial Jasper

Remember Bonnie dumster diving in a previous blog. Here's one of the pieces of Pink Amethyst Lace Agate and a pendant made from similar material.

Remember Bonnie dumpster diving in a previous blog. Here’s one of the pieces of Pink Amethyst Lace Agate she was digging for, and a pendant made from similar material. Purple and pink, Bonnie will dig for that!

Random slabs from someones scrap bin (if you can believe it). That’s what’s so fun about these shows.

Red Crazy Lace

Colorful Condor Agates

Pink transparent Gem dino Bone. Yeah, I spent the bucks on this, but I have a jewelry project for this one.

Pink transparent Gem dino Bone. Yeah, I spent the bucks on this, but I have a jewelry project in mind for this one.

Quartzsite 2016-Day 2

Lepidolite

T-Rocks Yard in Quartzsite

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I know you were waiting with baited breath! Someone, (me) forgot the charging plug for the computer, so forgive me and I’ll try to make up for it.

Bonnie diving for Pink Amethyst Lace

A place we never miss in Quartzsite is T-Rocks on West Main Street, a permanent rough rock vendor owned by Theresa and Mike Thompson, friends of ours from Calumet, Michigan. Guaranteed, they have the largest permanent selection of rough in Quartzsite. Unlike the snowbirds, they are always there: if you pass through town, you should stop. You can get just about anything there. Bonnie jumped into a cage, dumpster-diving style, to search to the bottom for the best Pink Amethyst Lace Agate. She sent me off to get a spray bottle and a bucket for the finds. Together we sorted, spritzed, pitched and narrowed our choices to the best ones we saw.

I watched an artist, Gary Graham, glueing Kyanite onto a cow skull which was partially decorated with pink howlite and turquoise howlite. We talked about what he might use in the eyes, moonstone, or red coral (simulated). These were carefully crafted, each piece fit closely together, with no grout applied to fill gaps, like we have seen elsewhere. The skulls are sold for $300-$500 at his Metal Sign Shop Booth. Sorry Gary, that Kyanite reflecting light messed with my camera.

These belt buckles were amazing. Will they hold your pans up, or pull them down. I love these. You should buy one.

The biggest highlight of this show was Green Velvet Antiques. The friendly lady, Barbara Levine, showed us two treasured belt buckles. One was 7 pounds of untreated Fox turquoise, surrounded by silver. It was by Roy Buck, Navajo, and was appraised at $24000. It is offered for sale for only $11000. Barbara let Bonnie hold it for the picture, with the admonition, “Don’t drop it”. The other belt buckle was a carved Apache Indian of Red Mountain turquoise, available for $6000. If you decide to buy one, please let her know you saw it here first. And after you buy it let me know, will these hold your pants up, or pull your pants down? Inquiring minds want to know!

Barrels and Pallets of rock

Purple Lapidolite rocks catch Bonnie’s eye.

Wonder what the fronts look like?

Like this

We went to Tyson Wells and Prospector’s Panorama (there are no wells at Tyson Wells). These shows are at the opposite end of the same road as The Desert Garden’s Show. Parking is a major issue at this show. People seem to park everywhere, even in front of exit/entrance gates, where they soon get a ticket and a tow. There are other shows in the area, so there is always a mixture of flea market buyers and rock, bead, and jewelry buyers, all mixed together.

You do know when they cook Amethyst it turns orange, didn’t you

You never know what can be found in the area of these shows. I took many pictures because a picture it worth 1000 words. I mentioned how bizarre these shows can be, so the photos are my proof. Tomorrow I’ll focus on the weirdness of the place: today mostly on rocks.

At Tyson Wells we visited El Paso Rocks, with the largest poundage of rocks at the Quartzsite shows, 50 gallon drums of rough everywhere, as well as the bins of assorted slabs, and various imported goods. Bonnie searched for some bargain beads, but came away with little. You’ll enjoy the huge quartz Arkansas crystals mined by Colemans.

We spent 2-3 hours exploring these shows. I bought a gift t-shirt. and that was about it.

The day wasn’t quite used up, so we went back to Desert Gardens, which is the real rock show, but vendors were not busy. We did find a purple Laguna Agate and we had a great time digging through tumbled bits and pieces, looking for jaspers, dendritic jaspers, and Bonnie even found an opal, which she said, this shouldn’t be here, but I said “Put it in the bucket!” We also saw a remarkable large polished piece of Wingate Pass Agate, free of fractures, and available for $1200. This was a stunning piece that should be in a museum. Bonnie made a last minute run for a few more beads. I’ll show you more stuff tomorrow. The internet is very slow, or I’d show you more.

On our way around town we saw numerous RVs coming to town for a big RV show this weekend. Lots of million dollar rigs around. I’ve been lusting after one, but the jewelry making business just hasn’t been that good yet! And apparently I didn’t win the PowerBall Jackpot, so better be happy with the RV I have!

Quartzsite 2016-Day 1

Quartzsite Exit is a welcome sight-250 mi from Tucson.

RVs in the desert

Quartzsite is our favorite venue to buy rocks and minerals, shop for slabs, and talk to fellow rockhounds. Quartzsite is a quirky little town about as far west as you can go in Arizona. There is really no Quartz in Quartzsite, but there are an an unbeleavable hoard of RV’s parked in RV parks, and what seems like every available open spot in the BLM Land surrounding Quartzsite. The normal 2000 resident town explodes to , some say, a million visitors in January and February each year. This year we saw very few RV’s as compared to past year.

Desert Gardens Show

The famous fake water tower

Malachite galore

We love driving the back roads from our RV park in Tucson to Quarzsite, cresting that last hill, as we travel west on I-10, and seeing a virtual sea of RVs. It’s a mind-blowing vision. When we see all these RVs, we know that the rocks are also there.

January – Quartzsite, AZ. Desert Gardens and Prospectors Panorama areas are open from January 1 till 28 Feb. Mainly outside. The Tyson Wells Show (there are no wells in Tyson Wells) closes Jan 10th, and QIA PowWow Show, mostly inside. January 20-24. Quartzsite, AZ.

Rows of dealers

Gembone-I bought the three on the corner

A great yellow Dino Bone

The Desert Gardens Show is always our first stop. There are no gardens at Desert Gardens. It is actually a big, flat, dusty flat spot in the desert, covered with RVs, show tents, people, and rocks–a Rock Pickers paradise. Parking is easy here, unlike down the road near the flea market. We have, over the years, found so many hidden treasures at this show it’s just amazing. You never know what may be found here. This show is the largest in area and is located on the frontage road running parallel and south of I-10. Exit as if you are going to Love’s Travel Stop. We did not drive the RV over to Quartzsite, but opted to drive our car and spend a couple overnights at the casino in Parker.

Look; A slightly used Pixie now in my possession.

Zebra Agate. How could you ever use this much?

Lemon Chrysoprase (Magnesite). Wait until you see it cut. What’s inside?

Here is what was inside

Prehnite–African

Can’t keep the woman away from the beads.

Bags of Denim Lapis

Big Ruby in there

We have stayed in Blythe, California (Known as Blight by the natives), but are always afraid our car will be broken into there. You can always get a cheap, seedy room in Blythe if you are the risky type that might participate in the TV show Fear Factor. Blythe is a one-street town (everything is on th US10 business route). Go for it; chances are at least 50-50 you’ll come out OK. Sorry Blythe people, I’ve been wrong before, and did not really mean to get Ricky Gervais on you.

Today I will cover our adventures at Desert Gardens, and tomorrow Prospector’s Paradise. I’ll also show you some of the flea market fun. We have, in the past, bought spatulas that had an unconditional guarantee to melt; saw, and purchased from a place that sold only RV water filters, witnessed piles of third-world manufactured clothing (perhaps even tainted with nuclear dust), and bought mystery meat from the jerky shop. We have seen musical instruments made from mailboxes and license plates, hippie buses, dried vegetables, and weird people galore. We have eaten “Fair Food” and drank cold beer. We have even seen the “naked guy”. Is he still alive? (Go ahead and search “naked guy in Quartzsite”,if you don’t believe me) I did hear from a local that his book store closed. This is so much fun….Anyway here is our first-hand report from Quartzsite. Trust me, these Quartzsite blogs could be real quirky.

Quartzsite-Let’s See What We Got

Olivenite-Caution should be taken with this stuff as it is a Copper Arsenate.

Cheetah Jasper with Apatite inclusions.

Returning to Tucson after 2 1/2 days exploring the Desert Gardens Show and several other locales around Quartzsite, we re-lived our adventures by taking a close look at our spoils.

A few of the very fine Imperial Jasper slabs I selected.

Cobra Stone-India. Some is wet so you can see the color better.

Cobra Stone-India (AKA Coquina Jasper). Some is wet so you can see the color better.

There were several slabs I picked out from at least that many dealers. One was an interesting stone from India called “Cobra Stone”. By looking at it you can see why it got its’ name. In actuality the reddish matrix is filled with a multitude of clams. When the stone is oriented and cut the little clams look like cobras.

I also mentioned the scarce crystal Rhodocrosite from Argentina I stumbled across. There is some left, but I picked the top pieces I saw. You can still find this beautiful pink material around, but is is uncommon. Generally a story comes with a rock purchase. With this Rhodocrosite we were told that Chinese bought the Rhodocrosite Mine from an unwilling to sell miner. The wrote him a check for so much money, he just walked away. The

Crystal Rhodocrosite ( color not enhanced)

Chinese converted this mine into an open pit operation in search of precious metals and rare earth minerals, doing so much damage, and violating so many mining rules, that they got evicted. In the meantime their dynamite destroyed a wonderful gemstone mine.

Coprolite-Yes I did indeed buy this crap.

I found some great Apatite-included Cheetah jasper at T-Rocks. This is actually spoil rock from the Brazilian Apatite Mines. It used to be just left in the discard pile until someone realized what great cutting material it is. The rock varies widely in color and pattern, but nice Cheetah Pattern is what most look for. The beautiful Apatite is a bonus.

Condor. The colors were classic Condor. Some of this is damp, but the Az sun just dried the slabs off immediately.

I bought a couple pieces of Condor Agate. I usually am not excited by most of this stuff, but occasionally I find such beautiful coloration that it just screams “CONDOR”. I found these two pieces, out of the whole box, begged me to pick them out.

Pickings were very good, but there were no crowds. Maybe shoppers are waiting for the week end.

All these rocks we bought with the plan of turning them into the top-quality wire wrapped stone jewelry that we sell. You might not be able to see it yet, but come back over future months to see the results! Like us on Facebook to keep up with new items and all our blogs from Tucson.

A nice slab of Purple Opal (AKA Bertrandite, AKA Tiffany Stone)

Some of the deluxe Aventurine from near Pikes Peak.

Some of the deluxe Amazonite from near Pikes Peak.

A fist sized piece of superb Chrysocolla picked from the 60# I found at the Desert Gardens Show.

Quartzsite Rocks and Redneck Guitars

Amazonite crystals.

T-Rock's Garden.

Clear sunny skies greeted us as we arrived in Quartzsite for Day 2 of our rock shopping adventures. We continued to walk the aisles of Desert Gardens searching for the best stones to make our jewelry, and found an amazing ammonite display from Lake George Colorado. They told us this is one of the only area on earth that smoky quartz crystals and amazonite are found together. We spoke to the miner and he related that after many years of mining amazonite he hit a four foot by four foot pocket that contained beautiful museum quality specimens of amazonite with smoky quartz crystals. He said it took three years of cleaning to get these specimens ready for sale. Combination specimens can be valued at many thousands of dollars. Larger amazonite specimens were in the $150-$500 range. We bought several small bags of pieces and chunks to make cabochons and jewelry.

amozonsmoky1

Digging through the many bins of water-covered slabs led to cold and wrinkled hands. There wasn’t too much that I didn’t already have, but I found a few treasures. One dealer had some lovely crystal rhodochrosite. This material is quite scarce and is unlike the common pink/black/white banded rhodochrosite in that it is quite translucent and has no banding. The Argentina mine that this chunk came from was purchased by the Chinese for mining of precious metals. The mine has been converted to an open pit operation that virtually ruined all of the superb rhodochrosite that had previously been mined there. The Chinese were after other materials, and lapidarists are in mourning over the loss of this great gemstone source.

The water was icy in the morning.

Quartzsite is like a redneck garage sale.

The redneck display champ.

We always get a laugh over some of the things we see in the flea market area near Tyson Wells. You always see an array of random redneck relics. If it is something you didn’t know you needed, you can find it in the flea market at Quartzsite. My redneck winner of the day was a guy with a card table containing animal skin rugs and banjo and guitar shaped facsimiles made from license plates. He must have ties to the Midwest because two were Michigan license plates. Interestingly, one of them is a non-expiring trailer license which costs $75. I also saw under his cardtable a pair of green antique glass net floats. Where do people get this stuff?

We had to return to T-Rock to pick up our purchases from yesterday and marveled at their rock garden of random large rocks encircled by large wire trees decorated by large glass balls similar to the ones under the guys card table. We gave up the shopping early and returned to the banks of the Colorado River.

We will return to our home base in Tucson tomorrow. When I get back to my portable photo studio I will take some detailed pictures of the treasures we purchased. For all of you who are coming to the Quartzsite shows, I left lots still on the tables–happy picking.

Quartzsite