The Copper Country Rock and Mineral Club held its annual Gem and Mineral Show Friday through Sunday.

There were eight dealers on hand, each with well-stocked booths, said club member George Schriver.

“You can find stuff from just about any country here,” he said. “You’d be hard put to miss a mineral. Of all the minerals in the world, I think we’ve got them in one place or another.”

Though the exact year is unknown, the Copper Country Rock and Mineral Club has been putting the show on for about 30 years, Schriver said.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Nathalie Brandes gives a presentation on the geologic history of Michigan and the Kewenaw during the Gem and Mineral Show Saturday.

The free show is open to geology enthusiasts of any age, but it’s especially geared toward children, Schriver said. Activities involve free mineral grab bags and a treasure hunt where kids can look for copper amidst wood chips with a metal detector.

“This is one of the most amazing geological areas on earth,” he said. “We really want the children to know what’s under their feet, and the history of the area.”

The club also gave out a new coloring book it published two weeks ago. Along with pictures to color, there’s simple geological descriptions, some background on the area’s mining history, and information about minerals they can only find in the Keweenaw.

Funds from the show go towards scholarships at Michigan Technological University.

As of late Saturday afternoon, it had been a busy weekend.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Samples are seen on display at the Gem and Mineral Show at Houghton Elementary School Saturday.

“Yesterday, you could hardly move,” Schriver said. “It’s a steady day today.”

Rachel Wicklund of Kingsford and her family have been coming for eight years. It gives them the chance to see specimens both locally and from throughout the world. Her daughter, now 17, has loved coming to the show, Wicklund said.

“It’s nice at the silent auction, because when they see little kids bidding, they won’t rebid on it, so most of the time it goes to the little ones,” she said. “It gets them interested in rocks, and just being outdoors.”

The fellow rockhounds at the show are always happy to answer questions, she said.

“Even if you bring something else in, there’s so many people who can tell you where it came form, what it’s worth, and if you can sell it,” she said.

Her favorite things to buy have been orbs, particularly a pyrite orb.

“You can actually see inside mine, and it’s like a geode,” she said.

Amanda Merriman of Painesdale and her son Liam Perriman, 12, were checking out worrystones at one of the booths.

“We really like looking at the different rocks and minerals on display,” she said. “It’s something you wouldn’t normally find anywhere else. And it’s at the school, which makes it very friendly.”

They also enjoy looking for agates at Agate Beach, and visited the Seaman Mineral Museum a couple of days ago.

One of their favorite finds so far Saturday was a specimen from Mexico.

“It’s a cross section of a rock and inside it’s a pink agate,” Amanda said. “It’s pretty cool.”

The show also included a presentation by author Nathalie Brandes, who walked the crowd through 3.5 billion years of Michigan geology.

While most Lower Michigan rocks are younger, the state’s oldest rocks are found in the Keweenaw and the western Upper Peninsula.

The state’s geologic history dates back to the Archean eon, from 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, which saw the first oceans, life and continents. Stromatolites, which can be found in the Keweenaw, are fossils left over from colonies of single-celled cyanobacteria.

She highlighted other unique aspects of the region. The Limestone Mountain near Pelkie marks one of the spots where limestone formed about 400 million years ago when the western Upper Peninsula was covered by a warm, shallow sea.

It usually erodes when the sea level drops again. For some reason, it didn’t there.

“It’s a big mystery to geologists: How come this is the only little bit of limestone left behind in the Western Upper Peninsula?” she said. “The only stuff similar to this is 300-some miles away. And it’s actually kind of fun as a scientist to have a mystery like “‘Why is that? Why didn’t all the erosion that happened since that formed wipe that away? What is special about that?'”

“We don’t actually know,” she said. “That’s a special place in the Upper Peninsula.”