Sarah Brown
Though the 72nd annual Sweet Home Gem and Mineral Show had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 lockdown, that hasn’t cooled local rockhounds’ ardor for minerals.
Ed Anderson, president of the Sweet Home Rock and Mineral Society, used his shelter-in-place time to do some work around his property in Waterloo, and was rewarded for the effort.
“I was out setting fence posts two days ago and I dug up a nice carnelian agate that was worth my time to be doing the work,” Anderson said.
The club decided not to reschedule the show this year, but members hope to still be able to dig up potential new members.
The club began in 1948 when 25 charter members gathered to share their interest in fossils and rocks. The attendance doubled to 51 interested hobbyists at the second meeting, when plans were made to vote on a name and elect officers.
The following year, the first annual banquet for the club was held at “the new Steak House,” location unclear now. Members displayed their collections, including an exhibit of a log truck that had been fashioned from petrified wood.
The second annual banquet was held at Sweet Home Union High School, and included a separate day open to the public to view exhibits and enjoy a Silver Tea. About 300 people attended that first public viewing, and the numbers doubled in the following years.
In 1953, an estimated 3,000 people attended the exhibit, and as many as 6,000 visitors were recorded in 1969.
Today, the club boasts more than 80 members, though only about a third are active, Anderson said.
Most members are “middle-aged” or older, according to member Albert “Dee” David.
The club’s show still attracts between one to three thousand visitors every year, said David, who estimates he’s been a member for 20-plus years, has been collecting rocks since he moved to the area.
“When I came down here, I got to doing a lot of fishing on the creeks, and there were a lot of pretty rocks laying around, so I started hauling them home,” David said.
But, as he soon discovered, when you get a big pile of rocks gathered up at home, you have to start doing something with them, he said. He appreciates “the fact you can make them nice and shiny,” and uses his collection to make jewelry.
David said most who join the club are those who like to hunt, fish, camp and be outside. Kids will hold an interest for a while, but “then they find smartphones.” It’s the people who like to be outside that are going to gravitate to the rock clubs and shows.
“You gotta like to pick things up off the ground; you gotta have a certain amount of curiosity in your make up,” he said.
It’s getting harder for rock hounds to find local places to dig, so David usually travels to central and southern Oregon, and sometimes Arizona.
“There are areas that have a lot of petrified agatized wood, and there’s a lot of areas that have thunder eggs, and then you have your geodes, which a lot of times will have crystal in them,” he said.
Emery Wagner joined the rock club after his son in La Grand found a thunder egg. Soon, both started hunting for more thunder eggs and petrified wood, and joined their local clubs.
“The rock club is more than just going out and hunting rocks,” Wagner explained.
The found rocks need to be cut and polished, and designed into jewelry or a display piece, he said.
“I’ve never met a rock I didn’t like,” said Marie Ekenberg, of Lebanon.
Ekenberg, who prefers petrified wood, carnelian agate and jasper, said rocks are beautiful, and each one has its own story.
The geological story explains how a rock is formed, she said.
“Each rock or mineral has certain characteristics, like color, their luster, their weight, their hardness. Some of them are fluorescent, they fluoresce under certain kinds of light. So they all have qualities, and they all were formed by some process.”
But there’s another story each rock has: a mythological one. Cultures around the world have valued rocks, minerals or gems, and attributed beliefs to them, Ekenberg said.
“I’m enthusiastic about the club,” she said. “I learn so much from each member. That’s one thing I like about people I’ve met in this hobby, is they’re very willing to share their knowledge, they’re very generous people.”
Many of the members in the Sweet Home Rock and Mineral Society club live closer to Lebanon, so the monthly meetings are held there.
The club meets at 6:30 p.m. each second Wednesday of the month at Santiam Place, 139 S. Main St., Lebanon. However, meetings are postponed until the quarantine is lifted. For more information, contact Ed at (541) 451-1577, or email [email protected].
“We’re an open and friendly bunch. We’re not stuffy,” Ekenberg said.