Getting Stoned at the Rock Show

Each year, vendors of minerals and gems from around the world, come to Spanish Fork with specimens ranging from the common and cheap to the rare and precious. The Timpanogos Gem and Mineral Society has hosted the show for the past 50 years, hoping to enrich the minds of those interested in mineralogy, paleantology, and geology – especially children.

Inside the cave-like atmosphere, activities from door prize drawings to gold panning competed with dazzling displays of thousands of beautiful gem specimens for attention. Gem cutters and experts were on-site solely for the purpose of answering questions at the “touch table” where people were invited to inspect the fossil and mineral specimens at their leisure.

Kids were given small examples of minerals to take home. Prices on stones and gems ranged from twenty five cents to thousands of dollars. Miners and collectors shared the space, and hocked their finds and equipment for rock hounds. Displays lined the walls, filled with treasure, stories, and history.

Wandering the aisles was a guy in a wearable dinosaur skeleton, who would switch between the costume and holding a rather large dinosaur puppet. The older kids were amused, some of the younger ones were frightened, but there was plenty to distract them. A family could spend hours at the show without getting bored.

The Annual Gem and Mineral Show occurs every year in mid- March.