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About The Collection

Currently the collection now comprises 828 specimens, collectively exhibiting at least 155 distinct mineral species.

cabinets by Keith Williams click to enlarge

Winter, 2004/2005

My grandparents, Nettie and Marty Dopler (my mother's father's parents) were both mineral collectors. Marty was also a lapidary. My memories of them are very much entwined with rocks. Heaven was a trip to a rock shop with Nettie and Marty; they encouraged me and my brother Mark to have collections, and sent us wonderful shipments of specimens from their collection for ours. Vacationing in Florida where they lived, I can't think of their home without thinking of their collection.

Over time, other interests and pastimes took over, and my interest in mineral specimens went to into hibernation.

Then, in the summer of 2004, for reasons I am still trying to fathom, I was sorely reinfected with the fascination for minerals. It seems to have had something to do with a trip to Colorado; at least, thats where the earliest onset of symptoms can be traced - seemingly innocent purchases of a sample of Silverton gold ore, and, a couple of days later, a meteorite specimen from a fall in Odessa, Texas in 1922.

Not long after returning home from that trip, I discovered that the web now boasts several venues which make it much much too easy to buy incredibly rare and beautiful and rocks on the merest whim - well, at the slightest click of the mouse, at any rate.

Having only been reawakened to mineral collecting for some half year now (as I write this), it would be presumptuous to consider myself anything more than a well-funded beginner. I am guessing that this in all likelyhood comes through in the collection: it's broad, unsystematic, and rich in the things I happen to find beautiful or interesting.

From the start, however, I have had a special interest in Rhodochrosite. This goes back several years before my reactivated collecting; I can't really remember how it started. It was reenforced by the discovery early-on of treasures of the Sweet Home Mine mine. Ironically, just as my interest in things Manganese Carbonate was being piqued, the Sweet Home was in its final summer of operation, ending a run of almost 15 years of producing some of the most delectable specimens ever collected.

The result is that Rhodochrosite is represented in the collection at a level that far outpaces any other single species, in terms both of quality and quantity.

That's pretty much where I am. I have plenty of ideas for further work, including many photographic additions and upgrades, additional information in these web pages, collection "tours", and on and on...

But right now, I'm going to go look at some rocks.

Update - Spetember 2007 It's now a couple of years since I penned the above. The size of the collection, (and the depths of my infection!) have increased. There is no end to this, I know now, so tread carefully and beware! Physically, the collection is now housed in two wonderful custom-built cabinets from Keith Williams, who seems to be The Man of the moment for building such. As you can see, one is dedicated to Manganese Carbonate; the tall one is for all of the non-rhodochrosite worldwide specimens I just could not resist. If you are thinking about cabinets, I cannot recommend Keith's cabinets enough. Worse, I have now been exposed to the world of field collecting. (Be careful who you hang out with!). So far, my expeditions include two digs at Peterson Mountain (aka Hallelujah Junction) Nevada, and one to Jacksons Crossroads, Georgia. This, of course, is an entire world in itself, and I am now entertaining dreams of other localities... The most wonderful surprise through all of this is that this is where all of the really cool people in the world are, it turns out - in this world of minerals! Note: my apologies to all you really cool people who are not mineral fanatics!; have you ever spent time with a really nice Bournonite? :-). While fully aware that our mutual quirk of being awestruck by the beauty of natural mineral crystals may be a factor :-), I am still left with this odd feeling that there is something more that draws us together. This - the wonderful people in the mineral collecting world - is the biggest revelation to me. Of course, as in any subculture, we have scroundrels and cynics, but even these, in the end, seem somehow better for being part of this world.

Thanks,

   - rmg