PORT ANGELES — Kaylin Apple’s eyes lit up with joy when she found a bag of shiny rose quartz and mahogany obsidian at the Vern Burton Rock, Gem and Jewelry Show in Port Angeles on Sunday.
“You did good,” said Carolyn Faux of Crafts by Carolyn, a Sequim vendor who sold the 50-cent bag to the happy 3-year-old.
Faux was one of nearly three dozen vendors who gathered in the Vern Burton Community Center on Saturday and Sunday to display their products and share their knowledge with the next generation of rock, gem and jewelry enthusiasts.
“I really like the polished ones,” said Madison Orth, 10, while inspecting a vast selection of rare minerals with her sister, Sophie, 8, and mother Katie Orth of Port Angeles.
Event organizer Cindy Kochanek said between 1,000 and 2,000 had come through the doors as of noon Sunday.
By comparison, about 5,000 attended last year’s inaugural Vern Burton Rock, Gem and Jewelry Show.
Kochanek speculated said the high price of gasoline kept some out-of-town collectors from showing up.
“You hate to think that it really is going to affect you, but it does,” she said.
Kochanek said this year’s show placed a special emphasis on kids.
“They love cracking the geodes,” she said.
John Cornish of John Cornish Minerals sold different sizes of geodes — rocks that look boring on the outside but contain spectacular quartz and others minerals on the inside — and let the buyer pop them open with a lever that tightens a chain.
Cornish, a local miner and author, promoted geode cracking at the show as a good family activity.
“It’s fun. It’s just a fun activity, and you get to share that amazement.”
The inside of the geodes reveal different colors and combinations of some 27 different minerals, mostly quartz and calcite.
Cornish said his best fossil is an 18-foot-long, 25-million-year-old whale that he found on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“We have true world-class fossils out here,” Cornish said.
Bryson Schafer, 11, and his 8-year-old sister, Breanna, displayed handfuls of rocks they collected at the show and listed each mineral by name with a geologist’s skill.
Back at Faux’s display, people young and old sifted through a collection of petrified wood — Washington’s state rock — that is wood that has been turned into stone over millions of years. Wood rings were visible in the stone.
Kochanek said the area’s long-standing rock and gem clubs are moving their shows to the Vern Burton Center this year.
The Clallam County Gem & Mineral Association will have its show Sept. 8-9, and the Clallam County Gem & Mineral Society will be Oct. 6-7.
Both events are expected to draw dozens of vendors.
“It’s hard to believe that there’s that many people so into rocks,” Kochanek said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
