It was almost by accident that the Smithsonian Institution started showcasing treasures in 1961 at the young Tucson Gem and Mineral Show .
Now, with the 60-year-old show nodding to diamonds as the traditional, 60th anniversary gift, the Smithsonian will bring some stunners in a collection that includes both natural crystals and diamond jewelry.
The museum has not always taken its mineral exhibits on the road.
When the gem show’s early organizers invited Paul Desautels, then the Smithsonian’s curator at the Department of Mineral Sciences, to bring an exhibit to Tucson, they did not realize that the Smithsonian kept mineral exhibits off the road, said Peter Megaw, the exhibits chair for the gem show.
For whatever reason, Desautels came, bringing with him “Uncommon Gemstones and Mineral Crystals.”
“He came out,” Megaw said, “but they didn’t have very much money to work with in those days, so he stayed with one of the couples who was an organizer of the show, fell in love with Tucson and started telling his friends.”
Museums from around the world flooded into what started as a club show sponsored by the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society . In the 1960s, satellite shows started to grow out of the main show’s spillover.
The now-demolished Desert Inn became one of the most prominent satellite shows, serving as a hub for business and socializing. It was so beloved by dealers and collectors that after the hotel’s demolition, the gem show in Munich, Germany, paid tribute by setting up a replica of the hotel bar.
Tucson became the place to be.
“People bring big, new discoveries to Tucson to show off for the first time ever,” Megaw said. “This is the place they want everyone to see things, the place where they want to make the splash.”
This year’s theme is “60 Years of Diamonds, Gems, Silver and Gold.” On Feb. 13 to 16, 250 dealers will set up shop in the Tucson Convention Center.
“Unless you’re the queen of England or the sultan of Oman, diamonds are smaller, so we decided to expand and look at what the other draws are,” said Paul Harter, the Phoenix-based chair of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
The main show started modestly at Helen Keeling Elementary School in 1955 with just 10 dealers. It attracted about 1,500 visitors, according to the gem society. The next year, it moved to the Pima County Fairgrounds before relocating to the Tucson Community Center (renamed the convention center) in 1972.
The club struck gold.
This year, 40 additional shows scattered around the city join the main show to make up the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase, which starts Feb. 1. The Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau expects to see 55,000 visitors at the showcase during its two-week span.
“It started out as two-days with dealers just covering a banquet table with a sheet and putting things out,” Harter said. “Today, it is truly an international show. ... Because of the great climate in Tucson and lots of mineral collecting in the area, it expanded.”
Visitors do not need deep pockets to walk away from the showcase enriched. The main show blends educational exhibits with dealer displays. Bead shows offer jewelry workshops. The Rock & Rolling Food Truck Round-Up at the Tucson 22nd Street Mineral and Fossil Show promises live music and a variety of international flavors.
Even those who prefer to do their treasure hunting at night will find their niche at Gem & Jam Festival, started in 2004 to fill a void in the gem showcase’s night life, said the California-based organizer, Toby White. For three nights, the festival stretches until 2 a.m., blending music, live painters and vendors that sell art and clothing among gemstones.
The free shuttle service GemRide, sponsored by the city of Tucson and Pima County, will whisk rock hunters to many of the shows. It goes downtown, into South Tucson and as far north as River Road with three loops and the Tucson Convention Center Express shuttle, according to the visitors bureau. Hopping on a shuttle is an easier way to see the crown jewels of mineral collecting than by trans-Atlantic flight to international museums.
Last year, Megaw visited a younger gem show in Shenzhen, China, as an ambassador for the gem show. That show has aspirations to go from “zero to Tucson in a couple of years,” he said.
“(The TGMS show) is the world’s best mineral museum that exists for four days every year,” Megaw said. “Then it disappears and never appears in that formulation again. What people bring changes every year, but every year people bring their best.”
