{"id":138402,"date":"2026-07-10T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/72nd-annual-four-corners-gem-mineral-show-opens-today-at-la-plata-county-fairgrounds\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:00:00","slug":"72nd-annual-four-corners-gem-mineral-show-opens-today-at-la-plata-county-fairgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/72nd-annual-four-corners-gem-mineral-show-opens-today-at-la-plata-county-fairgrounds\/","title":{"rendered":"72nd annual Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show opens today at La Plata County Fairgrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cindy
Cindy Pugsley, Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club president, polishes \u201crhodonite\u201d that was collected from a mine near Silverton of which she will make a pendant. Several club members will be vendors at the 72nd annual Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, which runs through Sunday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show returns to La Plata County Fairgrounds today for its 72nd weekend gathering, featuring vendors and artists who share a love for things of the earth.<\/p>\n

The show, hosted by the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club, will feature 65 local and international vendors showcasing jewelry, fossils, crystals, geodes and minerals, in addition to food trucks and a silent auction throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club President Cindy Pugsley said 15 vendors and dealers registered for the show represent Durango as well as Marvel, Mancos, Dolores and Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n

Pugsley will also have a booth at the show to display her custom made jewelry. Her specialty is working with local rocks, she said \u2013 rhodonite, a pink rock found in Silverton; white lace agate called Sow Belly Agate found in Creed; and cabochons out of rocks from the La Plata Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take a rock and you slice it on a giant saw like a loaf of bread,\u201d she said of making cabochons. \u201cThen you use a stencil to make whatever shape you want, say an oval, and then you trim that out on another oil saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, she said, one takes a grinding wheel and a polishing wheel to the stone.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Four
Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club President Cindy Pugsly works on a specimen of tiger iron at the clubhouse in Durango on June 25 ahead of the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show that opens Friday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cYou end up with a beautifully polished rock that you can set in a silver setting or necklace, bracelet, rings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Working with rocks is a craft called lapidary, and it\u2019s one Pugsley hasn\u2019t practiced particularly long, although she has fallen in love with it.<\/p>\n

She said she had inherited a large amount of rocks \u2013 about 70 buckets was how she quantified it \u2013 about five years ago, but she didn\u2019t know what to do with them.<\/p>\n

She had moved to Durango around the same time \u2013 hauling the collection with her \u2013 and joined the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club. She took silversmithing classes and lapidary classes, and eventually she started to help manage the club \u2013 first as secretary, then as treasurer and now as president.<\/p>\n

She led a field trip into the La Platas earlier this year and another field trip to a mine in Creed last month. She plans another field trip to a mine in Silverton for later in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more people you meet and you see them picking up rocks and putting them in their pockets, they don\u2019t know why they\u2019re doing it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just love rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pugsley said she does too, although she can\u2019t pinpoint why.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of just an obsession,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Alan
Alan Newsome, a member of the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club in Durango, polishes a sow belly agate pendant at the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club clubhouse in Durango on June 25. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She doesn\u2019t do much with her inherited collection. Once she moved to Durango, she fell in love with the La Platas and the native rocks scattered about them.<\/p>\n

Pugsley\u2019s favorite rock is rhodonite, which has a pink coloration. It\u2019s a silver mine tailing which consists of a combination of different minerals: little pieces of rhodochrosite give it its pink colors; magnesium gives it black colors; galena can give it a deceptive silverlike appearance; pieces of pyrite, equally deceiving, can make it look like gold; and white quartz can also get mixed in.<\/p>\n

A taste of local displays this weekend<\/div>\n

Vendors from far and wide will join locals at the La Plata County Fairgrounds through Sunday for the 72d annual Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show.<\/p>\n

Pugsley said one local vendor will feature a fluorescent display in a dark room. Another vendor, Eric Hodges, has been a Gem & Mineral Club member for decades and makes leather coats, bags and belts embellished with silver and stones, with his favorite material to work with being turquoise. She added his silver jewelry is a \u201cshowstopper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Wood of Silver Station said he will feature a 20-foot booth with an assortment of silver and crystal jewelry and other items: malachite specimens, Arkansas quarts, petrified wood, dinosaur bones and dung, embroidered hats, and screen-printed T-shirts will fossil images.<\/p>\n

Wood said he earned a degree in geology at Fort Lewis College in 1986, and he became a salesman for a company that used to be located in Durango called Comstock Creations. He worked as a traveling salesman resupplying stores across the country and attending mineral-based trade shows.<\/p>\n

His business is called Silver Station because it originated as a silver jewelry importer out of Taxco, Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"Four
Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club members use saws and wheels to cut and polish stones at the clubhouse in Durango. Several local members will be vendors at the 72nd annual Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, which runs through Sunday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wood\u2019s interest in geology dates back to his teenage years when his father would take him rock hunting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just really latched on. I just find rocks to be interesting. They\u2019re beautiful,\u201d he said. \u201cEven a river rock excites me at times. They\u2019re just really incredible, and then there is a special beauty with the crystal specimens.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also enjoyed sales, meeting people and building relationships. From searching for basic rocks out in the Mojave Desert to forming his own wholesale mineral business, his interests merge in events such as the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is a wonderful avenue, wonderful tool for people that are rock hounds or geologists or what not,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s a great collection place for those folks to meet up and see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alisa Hjermstad of A Nudge of Nature said she\u2019s been a vendor at the show for about 15 years. Born and raised in Durango, she has spent her life around rocks and the natural world. She was invited to the show one year and she became addicted to the rock hounding scene.<\/p>\n

\"A
A piece of sow belly agate from the Last Chance Mine near Creede after being polished at the Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She said she\u2019s making an effort to get children interested in rocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFossils are really my favorite way to introduce kids and people (to) the rock world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hjermstad described geology or even rock collecting as a \u201cchoose your own adventure\u201d hobby. She was speaking from experience \u2013 she entered college with an interest in art and exited with an archaeology degree.<\/p>\n

About 15 months ago she found a way to reunite with her artistic side while maintaining her fascination with rocks by taking up jewelry making.<\/p>\n

At A Nudge of Nature, she\u2019s trying to help people find their own meanings in rocks and crystals. Her entry point for getting kids into rocks is sand shark teeth \u2013 fossils she got from Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really try to focus (on) teachers that come in here. If they mention they\u2019re a teacher, they\u2019ll get a free box of fossil teeth,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s just spreading knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the rock scene should be easier for the uninitiated to grasp, and it\u2019s relatively non-expensive to dip one\u2019s toes into.<\/p>\n

The Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. Admission is $5 per day for visitors aged 12 and up. Volunteers get in for free.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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