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The featured exhibit at this year's Rock, Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show will include a nine-foot skeleton of “Gator Davies”, an fossilized alligator skeleton found in Florida.
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Annual Rock and Gem Show Set for March 8-9 at WIU

February 26, 2014

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MACOMB, IL – The 34th annual Geodeland Earth Science Club Inc.'s (GESCI) Rock, Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show will be held Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9 in the University Union Grand Ballroom at Western Illinois University.

The show runs from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday. The event is open free to the public; parking is free.

This year's show is themed "Rocks, Fossils and Minerals of Illinois and the Surrounding States" and will feature special exhibits, specimens of rocks, minerals and fossils from surrounding states and speakers on the topic. This year's feature exhibit will include a nine-foot skeleton of "Gator Davies," a fossilized alligator skeleton found in Florida. The exhibit is coming to the show courtesy of PV's Rocks of Peoria, IL.

Also included this year will be dealers in minerals, fossils, jewelry and equipment, a silent auction; rock, mineral, fossil and artifact identification, children's activities and games. Demonstrators will be exhibiting how to make pen barrels turned on a lathe, geode cracking, bead stringing, silver work, cabochon finishing, flint knapping, glass fusing and gemstone faceting.

On Saturday, tours of WIU's Geology Museum in Tillman Hall will be available. The museum features a T-Rex skull, a life-size Ophthalmosaurus and a life-size reconstruction of a Tully Monster. The museum will be open from 9 a.m. – noon and 1 – 4 p.m.

A variety of speakers and other programming is also planned in the University Union's Capitol Room. The schedule includes:
Saturday
• 11 a.m. - "T-Rex, The Real World," a video by The Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research about the five T-Rex skeletons excavated since 1990.
• 12:30 p.m. - "Minerals and Magma Chambers," by Professor Kyle Mayborn of the WIU Department of Geology.
• 2:30 p.m. - "Michigan's White Pine Mine," by Dean Stone.
• 4 p.m. - "Geodes, More than just a Rock," by Adjunct Associate Professor Raymond Anderson of the University of Iowa.

Sunday
• 11 a.m. - "Teeth, Jaws and Claws," by Curator Dale Gnidovec of the Orton Museum at Ohio State University
• 1 p.m. - "T-Rex, The Real World," a video by The Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research about the five T-Rex skeletons excavated since 1990.
2:30 p.m. - "Geodes, More than just a Rock," by Adjunct Associate Professor Raymond Anderson of the University of Iowa.

The GESCI was created in 1980 to organize and promote a gem and mineral show each year. The first show was held in 1981 at Western. GESCI was organized with seven western Illinois and eastern Iowa clubs.

For more information on the show, contact event chair George Coursey at courseyfarms@gmail.com.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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