Expert rock talk, sale tonight at Shelton church

Former Shelton resident Brittany Burkhardt, a mineral and fossil dealer for more than 20 years, will talk about her most spectacular digs at a meeting of the Shelton Rock and Mineral Society at 7 tonight at Shelton Christian Church, 115 Arcadia Ave., Shelton.

Everyone is welcome to attend, and admission is free. After the presentation, Burkhardt’s business, Elemental Endeavors, hosts a sale of minerals, fossils and meteorite specimens from around the world, including many pieces collected by her.

Burkhardt makes her living presenting mineral shows and teaching classes on the subject. She has visited more than 100 digs in the United States. Locally, she sometimes hosts a booth at the Shelton Farmers Market and attends the Shelton Rock and Mineral Society’s annual tailgate sale in August at the Mason County Recreation Area on Johns Prairie Road. Since 2019, she has organized what she bills as the region’s largest mineral show, the Seattle Mineral Market.

On her website, Burkhardt said her passion began as a child.

“There is no doubt I found my calling at a young age, crawling under the bushes around my childhood home,” she wrote. “I was continuously captivated by the yields of my explorations, which included spectacular silver ‘glitter rocks,’ ‘city rocks’ and ‘sunray rocks.’ I wondered why more people weren’t stopping to appreciate these tiny wonders beneath our feet. Something about these little gems intrigued me enough to then truck them around the neighborhood and sell them to all the neighbors.”

When she was 15 years old, an acquaintance shared their small mineral collection.

“I was shown a sharp, ‘perfect’ metallic cube and was told it formed naturally,” she wrote. “It was a cubic crystal of the mineral pyrite. The Spanish pyrite rocked my world like nothing else before. I was then determined to pursue a career in this field. I was off to study geology, joined all of the rock clubs in the state, and I started ‘rockhounding’ in a more serious way.”

In June 2020, she and Joe George dug the historic “Epic Pocket” while working on the dig team at Hallelujah Junction near Reno, Nevada. The pocket contained smoky quartz crystals, including a cluster purchased by the MIM Museum in Beirut. There, the museum curators billed the cluster “The Epic Grail.” News of the find was detailed in the publication The Mineralogical Record.

IF YOU GO

WHO: Shelton Rock and Mineral Society

WHAT: Presentation by mineral and fossil dealer Brittany Burkhardt

WHEN: 7 tonight

WHERE: Shelton Christian Church, 115 Arcadia Ave., Shelton

ADMISSION: Free