Club Meeting
2025-01-14 19:00 (America/New_York)
Auction
Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT

Club Meeting
2026-01-13 19:00
Ted Johnson will speak on his trip to collect minerals in Siberia.

Mineral Collecting in Siberia!
Siberia is a treasure trove of gems and minerals. This trip is an odyssey that covers thousands of miles along the borders of Russia, China and Mongolia.

*We arrive in Siberia at the city of Khabarovsk. Here we sightsee for a day while we adjust for the time difference and arrange for travel to Irkutsk a thousand miles into interior Siberia.

*Irkutsk is located on Lake Baikal, reported to be the deepest lake in the world! Our destination here are the marble quarries of Slyudyanka. We’ll spend a few days in this area exploring the old quarries searching for skarn zones that produce some wonderful minerals, like Blue Apatite, Scapolite, Sphene, Lapis Lazuli and many more.

*Next we’ll travel by the Trans-Siberian Railway and 4WD to the remote Transbaikal Mountains to the Malkany pegmatite district. Here we explore several of the pegmatite mines searching for gem minerals like Rubellite, Topaz, Morganite and more.

Food is scarce here so we take a day to go fishing in the local river. Check out the equipment and techniques that the Russians use to put some food on the table.

*We continue working our way along the Russian-Mongolian border to the important Tantalum mine at Orlovskoye. This is a huge griesen type deposit that was formed by mineral bearing solutions from a granite formation. We collect excellent examples of Zinnwaldite, Topaz , Amazonite, Golden Beryl and more.

The Orlovskoye mine is located in the autonomic state of Buryatia, a predominantly Buddhist area. The Buddhist religion is now being re-established after the fall of Communism. We’ll visit one of the local monasteries and get a rare inside tour by the monks.

*Next we travel to our last collecting destination, the famous gem mines of the Adun Chelon Mountains. This area has produced some of the best Aquamarines in the world for over 300 years! Here the mountains border on the famous steppes of Mongolia. We’ll collect Aquamarine, Smoky Quartz, Topaz at several locations including the famous Sherlovaya Gora (which translates to “Schorl Mountain”).

*Done with our collecting we travel to the city of Chita, the capitol of the regional Oblast or state of Chita. We do some sightseeing here while we wait for the signatures of officials which allow us to take our finds out of Russia.

*The odyssey comes to an end back at Irkutsk. Before we leave for home we spend a few days sight-seeing around Irkutsk and the wonderful Lake Baikal.

Club Meeting
2026-02-10 19:00
The next meeting will be on
Tuesday, February 11th 2025 at 7pm
in the Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT
Bring your Valentine – The program will be ROCKHOUND BINGO!
Join us for….Game Nite A Mineral Prize Extravaganza!
This has become a very popular, fun evening where you can win special mineral specimens and other hobby-related items. February’s program is guaranteed to delight those of you who cannot get to the Tucson shows. You’ll have a chance to win some specially selected quality mineral specimens to enhance your collection. No fees, no tickets, and you don’t have to know much about minerals to win (other than that they’re pretty and interesting). Even if it’s freezing out, you’ll warm up fast playing “Rockhound Bingo.”

Club Meeting
2026-03-10 19:00
“We are incredibly lucky to have Professor Richard Little joining us. He is a Professor Emeritus of Geology.
· “Many of you will remember his legendary presentation on the Jurassic Armored Mud Balls—he literally ‘wrote the book’ on his discovery of that unique phenomenon in the Connecticut River Valley.”
· “His talk for us is titled ‘Dinosaurs, Dunes, and Drifting Continents.’ He isn’t just giving a canned speech; he has specifically customized this research to focus on the geological formations right here in our own backyard.”

Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT

Club Meeting
2026-04-14 19:00
Judy will have Game Night.
Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT

Club Meeting
2026-05-12 19:00, 2026-06-09 19:00, 2026-07-14 19:00, 2026-09-08 19:00
Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT

Club Meeting
2026-08-11 19:00
Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave., Bristol, CT
Manganese Megafauna: “Mexico’s Hidden Treasures”
Presented by Mike Girard
You absolutely have to come to this one! On August 11th, we are honored to host a special presentation by Mike Girard.
The Discovery
In 2023, a massive cache of Ice Age megafauna fossils was discovered deep within a cave system in Mexico. The site is a logistical nightmare for traditional exploration, featuring a suffocatingly tight vertical entrance, long crawls, and deep, submerged passages.
This presentation documents the gripping efforts of a small team of explorers, led by cave biologist Dr. Luis Espinasa, as they attempt to retrieve these ancient remains using a specialized ROUV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle).
The Big Questions
The expedition sets out to solve a profound scientific puzzle: how did thousands of bones from mammoths, giant ground sloths, camels, glyptodonts, wolves, and prehistoric cats all end up concentrated in this single cave? Could this be definitive physical evidence of the work of Ice Age human hunters?
The presentation will explore the intersection of deep-time paleontology, technical cave diving, and the primary geological and archaeological clues that point to early human activity.
Get a Sneak Peek
Can’t wait until August? You can watch the project online right now to prepare for the meeting:

The 3-Minute Trailer:Watch on YouTube

The Full 44-Minute Documentary (“Crypt of the Megafauna”): Watch on YouTube (Features both Mike Sandone and Mike Girard)

Club Meeting
2026-10-13 19:00 | Douglas Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Avenue, Bristol, CT, United States

Bristol Gem & Mineral Show
2026-10-17 - 2026-10-18 | Douglas Beals Senior/Community Center, 240 Stafford Avenue, Bristol, CT, United States
Mark your calendars! Come down to our 54th Annual BRISTOL GEM & MINERAL CLUB SHOW… “Connecticut Rocks”.. Located at the Beals Community Center, 240 Stafford Ave. , Bristol, Ct.

Saturday: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
