TUCSON, Ariz. — The doors to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the Tucson Convention Center are officially open. There are thousands of gems and minerals in house with vendors around the country and the world, but one particular mineral stole the show.
"Its beautiful. The minerals are large, colorful, lustrous, tabular crystals - often gemming, clear," said Mark Hay, with Principles of Arizona Minerals.
What Hay is describing is the mineral wulfenite. This year, TGMS centered the theme around this fiery stone. Wulfenite was officially named Arizona's state mineral in 2017.
"We had a state rock, which is petrified wood. We've got state animals and things such as that. But Arizona did not have a mineral. And there's a lot of minerals in the world, but the one mineral that is a real crowd-pleaser, that nobody in the globe beats Arizona on is Wulfenite," said Hay.
Hays said there are eight wulfenite localities in Arizona alone, as well as some in Mexico, Africa and Europe. Wulfenite is a led-bi-lipid, made from led deposits, which southern Arizona has a a lot of.
"Arizona's groundwater is so deep, we have a lot of oxygen that's exposed to those led minerals. So Arizona's very blessed geologically with its Wulfenite localities," said Hay.
Discovered in Germany by Franz van Wulfen in 1845, this gemstone is featured in dozens of displays and vendor booths in TGMS' 65th annual showcase.
