Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Rock and Mineral Society honored Bob and Mona Waibel for their years of service to the club with a life membership in the club during its 56th annual Rock and Gem Show at Sweet Home High School on Saturday.
The two have been involved in the club for 42 years. Mr. Waibel has served four of those as president of the club. He has led field trips for more than 10 years.
“Bob’s always been a rock hound,” Mrs. Waibel said. “My word, he’s collected rocks since he was a child.”
“I’ve put in more displays than the entire membership has total together,” Mr. Waibel said. He has won nearly 200 trophies and ribbons at the Sweet Home rock show since 1962.
Last year, he had 10 displays at the rock show, but with the amount of work that goes into them, he decided to enter only three this year. His exhibits this year included Holley blue, petrified wood and Indian artifacts.
“One of Mona’s best friends was a rock hound,” Mr. Waibel said. “I had a little collection of rocks.”
With the connection between Bob Brandt and Mr. Waibel set that way, Brandt took Mr. Waibel to Holley where they dug Holley blue, a local purple agate. The agate deposits are now closed to the public.
Mr. Waibel continued years of digging in Holley and elsewhere around Sweet Home.
The highlight of his rock hounding came “digging and getting that big hunk of Holley Blue in the early ’80s,” Mr. Waibel said. The stone weighed some 40 pounds.
“It was wedged between two big rocks,” Mr. Waibel said. He exposed the stone about six feet down, but it was getting dark outside.
“I started to panic because I couldn’t get the thing out,” Mr. Waibel said. He reluctantly waited till morning to finish extracting the agate.
What he found was a stone with a cave-like crystalline interior and veins of agate.
“It’s a most unusual thing,” Mr. Waibel said.
“Years ago, someone from The New Era took a picture of it,” Mr. Waibel said. “I was wearing the same shirt I’m wearing now.”
The striped, purplish shirt matches the Holley blue he was wearing in a string tie during Saturday’s rock show.
Holley blue is popular, Mr. Waibel said, because it is the color of the highest award a person can receive in shows, the grand champion award. First place ribbons are blue, but grand champion ribbons are purple.
“I’d go out with him, and he’d be digging in holes,” Mrs. Waibel said. “I couldn’t see him.”
Soon she would begin wondering how she would get him out of some of the holes he dug.
“It’s a good hobby,” Mr. Waibel said. “You can collect them (rocks), leave them and come back. They won’t rot or deteriorate.”
Rocks can be passed on to grandchildren, Mr. Waibel said.
And they hold their value, Mrs. Waibel said, but the rock club and the rock show are more than just rocks.
“My favorite part of this rock show is sitting up front,” Waibel said. While collecting the 50 cents admission at the door, she gets the chance to see friends and acquaintances from all over the state.
Rocks are still at the core of their interest in the rock show.
Sweet Home is situated over a petrified forest larger than the one above ground in Arizona, Mr. Waibel said. Sweet Home, having once been under a sea, had a wide variety of types of wood for petrification, and that has made it popular for rock hounds.
With the rich variety of rocks to be found here, Mrs. Waibel said, “it’s kind of in your blood to be interested. People get excited with what they find here.”
As she looked around the displays at the rock show, Mrs. Waibel said, “Every one of these rocks has a story about how you found it.”
Mr. Waibel doesn’t dig any more. He’s turned his interest above ground and is now gardening. He is raising 102 types of dahlias and 105 types of irises. He plans to increase his dahlia garden to 140 varieties this year.
The rock show seemed busier this year than usual, rock club President Joe Cota said. “It looks like it’s been going great, wall to wall people the first three or four hours.”
It looks like people found the show despite the disruptions of construction, Cota said. In 20 years, it was the busiest he had ever seen it on the first day.
The show continued on Sunday.
In the children’s egg carton exhibits, Katlyn Haven, 10, won the first-place trophy in the 8-10 division. Haley Posadas, 10, was second. Laura Grove, 10, was third.
In the 11-15 division, Kortney Meyers, 11, placed first. Saral Alex, 12, and Cassie Wise, 11, tied for second. Kaity Primasing, 12; Alleray Moffett; and Melanie Grove, 15, tied for third.