Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase Guide

For roughly two weeks every February, Tucson becomes the mineral capital of the world. The Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase isn’t one event — it’s dozens of separate shows sprawled across hotels, tents, and convention halls all over the city, drawing dealers and buyers from every continent. It started in 1955 as a small club show and metastasized into the largest gathering of its kind anywhere, where you can hold a dinosaur skull, a Mars meteorite, and a Brazilian amethyst geode taller than you are, all in one afternoon. Prices run from a dollar tumbled stone to a museum’s annual budget.