By David Von Bargen.

The Denver show has been expanding like the Tucson shows in that it consists of a club (actually a group of clubs) gem and mineral show as well as dealers selling in other areas of the main venue, motel shows and this year expanded to a joint show with stamp and coin dealers. There were 10 shows scattered at various venues along with a reception at the Colorado School of mines geology museum. In September, the mountains begin to become golden again with aspen and cottonwood and can provide showgoers with an alternative activity if they become overstimulated by minerals.

The mineral club show and the Colorado Mineral & Fossil show are the main venues for mineral dealers, while the Colorado Fossil expo is the main grouping of fossil dealers. This year, dealer sales appeared to be off a little, and one of their main complaints was the "Tucson creep" - ever earlier starts some mineral dealers begin sales. The night time activity at the motels has decreased with the increasing length of the shows.

The theme for this year's club show was "Fossils - Windows to the Past", but fortunately, most exhibitors kept to mineral themes.


Some relatively small dinosaurs that were able to be displayed.


A number of other museums brought other fossils to the show.


Precious opal fossil replacements provided specimens of interest for both paleontologists and gemologists.

Setup day

There are many display cases and dealer booths to set up before the hordes of show visitors arrive.

Dealers need to get their specimens out for all to see.

Some people were a bit more civilized in their setup (they did go in and rearrange things several times.)

The Bonn museum brought a reproduction crown to the show.




There were lines of people waiting to get into the show Friday morning (even though the weather was beautiful).

Judging the cases on Friday morning did mean that the visitors had to work around the judging.

Dealers

Kristalle sets up in one of the rooms to the side of the main hall so they can close off and concentrate on setup.




Mountain Mineral International had several shelves of the new sodalite on nepheline crystals in addition to their usual assortment of minerals from Asia.

Exhibits

MAD case

MAD exhibit

Galena - Missouri

Denver 2009

Rudolph & Proctor case

Denver 2009

Copper - Michigan; Bunny rabbit

UK minerals

Pyrite and calcite

Fluorites

Not everything was serious (but the minerals were)

Denver 2009

Denver 2009

Cut and rough stones

Colorado minerals
One can find a number of displays of local minerals

Amazonite and Smoky quartz

Amazonite and Smoky quartz

Topaz

Encoraging young collectors

Hutchinson Family

This was Shealeene's second or third exhibit in the show.

Denver 2009

Denver 2009

Denver 2009

School Group activities

The clubs have set up field trips for the various school groups in the Denver area. The children not only have fun, but they are given questions that they have to find answers for (drat - homework).

School group viewing exhibits

The gold panning is a very popular attraction and various heights of sluices are available for the different ages.

Gold Panning

Denver 2009

Grab bags are very popular with the students and the club members end up with piles of crumpled dollar bills. Some teachers try to get the students to wait until they get back to school before opening, but are usually unsuccessful. Some students do look for better specimens from the dealers or even get some "collector" magazines.

Grab bags after the rush

The Vug booth was a popular place during the school visits with both Brandy and Justin face painting of minerals, fossils and rock picks.

Justin

Resting

Mr. Bones

Mr. Bones on the prowl

About a dozen students didn't return after the field trips. Police were curious because they all had been face painted with a rock pick. Justin, when asked, wasn't aware of any connection between the students. Mr. Bones, the T-Rex, wasn't talking, but he did have a satisfied look on his skull and appeared to have put a little flesh on his bones. Inquiries are continuing.

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