Hidden treasures at USU’s campus rock and mineral sale
Last Monday, USU’s geology club hosted a rock and mineral sale on the quad in an effort to help students get more involved with geology.
“Geology is more than just studying rocks,” Joseph Bingham said. “We also study volcanoes, fossils and minerals.”
© Lizzy Driggs, The Statesman A collection of rock samples for sale at the USU Geology department’s rock sale
Bingham is a junior in the geology program at Utah State University and an active member of the Geology Club.
The rock and mineral sale featured rocks ranging from 50 cents to 50 dollars. Higher priced rocks often featured fossils and more rare rock forms. Club members were quick to show off the various rocks for sale, some of them coming from California during the Cambrian Period.
© Lizzy Driggs, The Statesman A collection of rock samples for sale at the USU Geology department’s rock sale
Most of the rocks at the sale were donated to the geology club from friends of the geology department.
“There’s actually a museum in the geology building, which nobody knows about,” the geology club vice president, Jonathan Roy, said. “It’s a hidden treasure.”
The museum is also home to Percy the Utahraptor.
“Somebody in the art department did it for their master’s thesis,” Chloe Geddes said. “They recreated a dinosaur … he’s not life-size, but there’s a shadow of him that is life-sized.”
The museum is located on the second floor of the geology building in room 215 and is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Inside, there are display cases filled with rocks and fossils.
Paul Jamison is a retired USU alum who volunteers at the museum in the geology building. Like many other geology alums, he has stayed in contact with the department because of his passion for geology and love for USU’s geology department.
While discussing the discovery and history of a fossil in the museum, Jamison said, “The guy who did this for us is an alum of the geology department and he did it just because he wanted to do something cool for the geology program.”
As it turns out, a lot of the fossils in the museum come from donations. Jamison said many of the displays are expensive. “But we get it for free because people love the geology department.”
Email geoclub@gmail.com to get more involved with USU’s geology club activities.
Emily White is a junior studying English and print journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.
—emily.white@usu.edu