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Where: The Best Western Executive Inn, located at 333 W. Drachman St.
2009 update: There is no show located directly north; the lot is empty. Thus, the show is no longer bifurcated. The vendors across the street have created their own show, the Executive Inn Mineral & Fossil Show (there was a bunch of complicated litigation according to vendors Arizona Bead Dog spoke with last year (2008)). Click on the link to view that show's review and information.
What: In 2008, this show was bifurcated* in that one part was in the hotel, and another was across the street (north) in tents and a building there, but there's parking in both places, and since Drachman isn't that busy of a street for the most part, getting across the street in your vehicle isn't too difficult. The hotel show offers mostly mineral specimens from dealers located in the rooms in the main hotel, the southern wing across Mabel (the street is cordoned off so it's very pedestrian-safe), as well as a ballroom area in the main hotel. You can also find stone spheres, carvings, and vases, fish fossils, rings, some limited finished jewelry, petrified wood, stone carving tools, and limited bead strands. It seemed especially international here; Arizona Bead Dog saw dealer signs indicating dealers came from as far away as China, Germany, and Switzerland. The show across the street had about 10 Moroccan fossil vendors, offering everything from stone table tops, sink basins, stone fossil mirrors, plates, vases, mortar and pestles, shark's teeth, interesting calcite geode-bowl-like specimens (just their natural state). With the competition, it's probably a good place to get a set of unique Moroccan fossil dinnerware (one vendor was offering his plates for $12 each). In the building just north of the tents you'll find a lot of great gemstone and natural stone beads and pearls, salt rock night lights, and sunstone.
( Sahara Fossils.)
Inside or Out: Both.
Parking: Paved parking available in the hotel parking lot, plus along the quiet side streets. For the show directly north of Drachman, there's a dirt lot, as well as street parking.
Food: At the outside tents, you can find Mediterranean and Mexican food.
Rest rooms: Inside the hotel.
2009 show dates: January 31st through Saturday, February 14th.
Show hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
2009 Shuttle routes: Citrine/Tanzanite.
For additional information: www.eigmfs.com.
 
(Inside Sahara Fossils' tent.) |
