TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — More than 65,000 people descend on Tucson each February for the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase. It is a collection of about 50 gem shows across the city.
"Human beings are fundamentally attracted to bright shiny objects," said Peter Megaw, Exhibits Chairman of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
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Megaw is a geologist and long time member of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society. He remembers going to his first Tucson Gem and Mineral Show as a college student in 1977.
"Even though I was a geology student, and I was brining rocks home from the field, I didn't think of myself as a mineral collector until after the Tucson show," recalled Megaw.
He was hooked.
Megaw is one of nearly 500 members of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society. He's helped the annual show grow into an international event.
"I'm just flabbergasted at home much it's grown," Megaw said. "By at least a factor of five the biggest event of its type in the world."
While there are nearly 50 gem and mineral shows each February in Tucson, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society is credited with starting it all.
"[They] recognized there are a lot of rocks and minerals around here," said Megaw. So they banded together to form the society. In 1955 decided to have our first show."
That first show in 1955 looked nothing like the sprawling four-day event we see today at the Tucson Convention Center.
"We started off in the all-purpose room at Helen Keeling School," Megaw said. "There were six dealers, maybe a dozen exhibitors, and I think they got 1,500 through the door."
It was an instant success.
The next year, the event moved from the elementary school to the Pima County Fairgrounds.
In the early 1960s, the society decided to use Tucson's wonderful February weather to their advantage. They invited Paul Desautels, the curator of the Smithsonian, to get out of the snow and come to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
He brought gems and minerals from the Smithsonian to display at the show.
"He fell in love," recalled Megaw. "He went back home, he told his friends at the American Museum in New York, and at Harvard, and at Carnegie and all of these other institutions: 'There's this great show happening out in the desert in February.' So they started to come."
By 1972, the Gem and Mineral Show had outgrown the fairgrounds.
They moved into the brand new Tucson Convention Center. The show has expanded right along with the TCC.
Megaw now helps bring in about 160 private collectors and museums from around the world each year.
"We create a magnificent ephemeral museum," explained Megaw. "It exists for four days and then dissipates back to where it came from. It will never exist in that form again. If you live in Tucson, that's a tremendous resource, a tremendous opportunity to go down and see these things. You have to travel around the world nonstop on a full-time basis to see half these rocks, but they come to you once a year."
The 68th Tucson Gem and Mineral Show opens Feb. 9 and runs through Feb. 12 at the TCC.
Megaw points out there are plenty of shiny gems and minerals for sale, just in time for Valentine's Day.
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Pat Parris is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. He is a graduate of Sabino High School where he was the 1982 high school state track champion in the 800 meters. While in high school and college, he worked part-time in the KGUN 9 newsroom. Share your story ideas and important issues with Pat by emailing pat.parris@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.