Gemstoners Up-coming Events
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Affiliations and Links
Our Club History
Life Members
BETTY BUSCH      LUCILLE THOMPSON           RUTH TACQUARD        EIKO BOSSERMAN         
     FOUNDER
JOHN WRIGHT
SEE THEIR STORIES BELOW:
RUTH TACQUARD


             BETTY BUSH
















  Betty Bush is a life member of the Mohave County Gemstoners’. She was president of the club     during the 1989 and 1990 years.  At that time, they met at Rebecca’s and held their gem shows   at the County Fairgrounds during Andy Devine Days. During those days, the club’s membership   had dwindled to only nineteen members. She has not been active in recent years but attended      the show last year.  She showed me some of her minerals and some of the lapidary items she      and her husband, Roscoe made. Roscoe passed away last October.
 












Ring - Roscoe madeTable with slabs


     CHARLES "CHARLEY" & JOYCE BRIDGES

Charley Bridges was born on August 25, 1922 and is a 88 years young. He was the president  of   the Gemstoners’ in 1996. He has lived in Kingman since the early 1990’s and was married to       Arlene. Arlene passed away about 5  to 6 years ago. Charley remarried about 3 years ago to         Joyce Mugford, a local prominent artist here in Kingman. You can see her paintings, which are        for sale at the Route 66/Thompson Swap Meet on Saturdays. She has been  painting for about     11 years and has taught painting at MCC, and the Parks & Recreation. Charley has not                    collected or done any lapidary work for a number of years. He however still has a set of                   bookends he calls his  “Butterfly” bookends, which he found near Helendale/Barstow area, 22        miles out in the desert.  It is a combination of  Agate – Rhyolite and opal.
















CHARLES "CHARLEY" BRIDGESJOYCE "MUGFORD" BRIDGES















              "Butterfly Bookends" Charley and bookendCharley's rock collection

   
HELLYN & JACK FRANKS

  Hellyn Franks was the past president of the Gemstoners’ in 1995 and 1997 and 1998.She and    Jack have been  married for about 30 years. They came to Kingman in 1993 from Tennessee.    She taught Silver smithing, Navaho, wire-wraping and Lapidary at the Mohave County                   Community College for a number of years, until 2005. She and  Jack still do lapidary work.           They  have 5 children, 14 grand children and 11 GREAT GRAND Children. 
















                        HELLYN FRANKS   JACK FRANKS











                    NECKLACE    AZURITE & MALACHITE MANMADE     SPIDER AGATE









  


     JACKS LAPIDARY WORK         JACKS RINGS  PYRITE SLAB             HELLYN'S WORK


                                                 
      EIKO BOSSERMAN

  Eiko Bosserman and her husband Ben moved from Los Alamos, California to Golden Valley     in 1988. They joined the Gemstoners’ club in 1989.  Eiko was born in 1930 and is 79 years        young.  She was a midwife at the army exchange base in California, and worked there for 25     years. She was from the northern part of Japan, Okaido-Honshu.  She hopes to go back to         see her brother and niece there in the near future.  Ben Bosserman passed away last year in     October of 2008.









JAN:
16th, Monday:Field trip out to Mary's Wash & Kitty Litter Mine. Assortment of                               Jaspers & agates and other interesting rocks. Meet at Power House                                 at 8:00 AM. Any Questions contact Kenny or Clarkie @ 565-7678.

18th to 22nd:      The Pow Wow is this week down in Quartzsite.

24th, Tuesday:       Trip Planning Meeting at Gary's> 992 Selma Dr. at 10:00 AM.

Feb:
6th, Monday:         Show Meeting at Library, 10:00 AM.

12th, Sunday:    Field Trip: Castle Mtns. Meet at Nugget in Searchlight for breakfast at 7 AM. Will head out at 8 AM from Nugget. Geodes, Apache Tears, some in Perlite, geometric geodes in Perlite.

14th, Tuesday:      Board Meeting at 5 PM, followed by General Meeting at 7:00 PM                                      at  the Senior Center.

26th, Sunday:          Field Trip: for Squiggly Jasper outside Oatman. Meety at Power House at 8 AM.
Youth Section
Children of all ages are always welcome to attend our monthly meetings. They must be accompanied by a parent or another adult member.

Some of the items that you will find interesting are:
1. Talking with the members before and after the meeting.
2. Viewing the minerals and lapidary items brought each meeting.
3. Listening to and participation in the monthly talks from experts.
4. Trading and receiving specimens of rocks and minerals from local and other locations.
5. Going on the monthly events with other members and your parents to collect, observe nature and the different geological areas.
6. Enjoy the website and read about the club, it's history and newsletter.
X- DANA SYSTEM OF MINERALOGY
by Robert Pedersen

The-Dana System of Mineralogy is a system where minerals are identifed, locations in the world, properties etc. of every know mineral.

One of our club members, Robert "Bob" Pedersen has taken the Dana system and updated it. He has added the new minerals each year since 1995, about 100 new minerals a year for the past 15 years and included them in an Excel file called X-Dana
He has given permission to put the file on our website for all to use and download.

This is a wonderful addition and he continues to add the new minerals yearly to X-Dana

You can open the file with Microsoft Excel or get a program from Open office.org
Click on the above file to view or download.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Mildred Page, one of our Life Members, passed away on Wednesday, September 15th in Emmett, Id. Our condolences go to her family. Mildred was 85.
George Tirpak -- In June, the Board unanimously ratified the Life Membership of George Tirpak. George has been with the Club for many years. Some will remember him out on field trips, sledge hammer in hand, leading the way to interesting finds.
George has been immersed in the rock world from the time he was young. He has taught lapidary, silversmithing, and casting, in states he has lived in. He taught for a time at Mohave County Community College.
George valiantly fought back from illnesses that had him in and out of hospitals for a while, and was well enough to once again take an active part in our Annual Rock & Gem show. Any one who has taken the time to talk to him has come away amazed at the amount of knowledge he posesses. Anything to do with rocks, George has done it. He is truely a Mohave County Gemstoner Treasure.
IN MEMORIUM

We regret to inform you of the passing of former long-time Gemstoner, Richard Froke.  Richard moved to Las Vegas after becoming ill and passed away on February 25th, 2011.
He was married to Carol Froke, also a former long-time member.

We regret to inform you on the very recent passing of Marion Andrews, husband of Carolyn Andrews.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Carolyn and her family.

SUNSHINE CORNER

Life Member, Ruth Tacquard, is recovering at home after a fall and surgery.  We hope her recovery will be swift.

If you have any questions about the Field Trips, contact Gary @ 757-8121.
Metal Clay: Wayne Good has a friend that works with and teaches in Metal Clay. Interest is picking up on this facinating medium, and the class will be about the end of Feb. $100 will pay for the lesson and enough material to create a pendant and earrings. For questions you can call Wayne @ 565-3979. As soon as we know when & where we will contact interested parties and post here on web site.
Mohave County Gemstoners' 42nd Annual Rock & Gem Show application and Kingman Event Permit. Both need to be filled out and mailed in to participate in the show. Any questions or concerns, please contact Mary Gann, Show Chair. 928-757-8121.
Click here to add text.
Herman is selling his 18" Rock Saw.  Clean as a
Whistle. Table top model. He is asking $920.
This is worth looking at. For more info call Herman at 928-692-0139.
Tentative: March 11th, Sunday,  there is a field trip being discussed to visit a mine near Dolan Springs, but this has not been finalized yet.