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St. Lawrence County Rock & Mineral Club's 50th Gem & Mineral Show and Swap Aug. 22-24 in Madrid

Posted 8/20/14

MADRID -- The St. Lawrence County Rock and Mineral Club will celebrate their 50th anniversary at the 48th Gem and Mineral Show. The event is set for August 22 to 24 at the Municipal Park and …

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St. Lawrence County Rock & Mineral Club's 50th Gem & Mineral Show and Swap Aug. 22-24 in Madrid

Posted

MADRID -- The St. Lawrence County Rock and Mineral Club will celebrate their 50th anniversary at the 48th Gem and Mineral Show.

The event is set for August 22 to 24 at the Municipal Park and Community Center in Madrid. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Dozens of collectors and vendors from several northeastern states and the southeastern Canadian provinces will offer part of their collections for sale on Saturday and Sunday. This event is to include handcrafted jewelry vendors and jewelry making suppliers, museum-quality crystals, fossils, mineral specimens, handcrafted gift items, free “Kids Mineral Kits,” rock-collecting trips, gem tree and wire wrapping classes, educational geological presentations, a gem and mineral auction and raffles.

The show kicks off Friday night after dark. Club member Dino Zack, a certified geologist from Buffalo and student mentor at SUNY Buffalo, is to lead the Friday evening Kid’s Fluorescent Mineral Hunt. Children will be lent a portable black light to search the park for samples of fluorescent minerals provided by the club. Zack will give a 30 minute presentation prior to the hunt, which will also cover the requirements for the Scouts to earn their Geology pins and loops, and close with a discussion on luminescence. There will be a free raffle for kids at the Friday evening fluorescent mineral hunt to win a new fluorescent lamp donated by Zack. He will also give general geology presentations on Saturday at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.

Club member Dave Millis of Pennsylvania will bgive wire wrapping lessons and demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday.

Lessons are free, there will be a nominal charge for materials.

The Club is sponsoring the “Geode Cracker.” Geodes are hollow rocks formed millions of years ago by natural processes. Some contain quartz crystals, others contain amethyst. The customer may purchase a geode and watch it be cracked open by a geode cracker.

On Saturday evening there will be a 5 p.m. auction of donated mineral specimens and other items of interest to rockhounds. It features long-standing club member and auctioneer Schuyler Alverson.

Throughout each day of the show, tickets will be sold for a chance to win a large Brazilian amethyst cathedral. Tickets cost $1 each or 6 for $5 and can be purchased inside the blue pavilion. The winning ticket will be drawn by one of the young bystanders on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.

Guided field trips to Power’s Farm in Pierrepont, a famous location for black tourmaline and quartz crystals will leave on Saturday morning. A trip will depart on Sunday to Bush Farm, a collecting location for brown tourmaline and tremolite. Fees for collecting at each is $5 per day and the trips are open to all ages.

The Madrid Municipal Park and Community Center is near the intersection of state routes 310 and 345. It is at the south end of the bridge over the Grasse River and has parking for RV campers. There are no hook-ups, but water and restrooms are available. There is river access and a playground for the kids. Local restaurants are within walking distance and a food concession truck will be open during show hours, selling hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks and snow cones.

Info: Bill DeLorraine, 287-4652 or www.stlawrencecountymineralclub.org.