ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

PALMER — Brad Ohs is a rock hound.

In a rock collector’s world, that means he finds and keeps all kinds of stones, never passing up the chance to add to his collection. Once a month, at the Palmer Senior Center, local rock hounds gather bring their latest finds and meet for a few hours for an adult version of show-and-tell.

At last week’s meeting of the rock hounds, Ohs, president of the Mat-Su Rock and Mineral Club, removed a large, gray orb from his plastic bag.

“I have something that nobody else will have,” Ohs gloated, displaying his prized possession. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure someone will.”

On a table inside the senior center cafeteria, a cluster of smooth, white insulator nuggets are on display, taken from an old dumping area in northern California.

“They’re not rocks,” Ohs said, “but they sure are impressive.”

Ohs said many of his finds, from amethyst, marble and pyrites to agates and fossilized crustaceans, come from Outside. He has, however, found his fair share of impressive mineral rocks and fossils in the Mat-Su area over the years.

On the third Tuesday each month, 18 to 35 members of the Mat-Su Rock and Mineral Club show up with boxes and bags of stones to show off. As rock, fossil and mineral enthusiasts, they come for various reasons, from hoping to get some of their finds identified to boasting of an unusual discovery.

At one table, a sign reads “Best Beach Finds,” where various rocks and fossils sit next to an odd-looking piece of wood shaped like an ox skull. It’s not a fossil, Ohs said, but it is still a good find.

The rock club plans field trips to beaches, rivers and other nearby areas where rocks are found. Rock cutting and other artistic demonstrations are held during the year, like flint knapping, an ancient rock-breaking technique used to make tools and crafts.

Lila Taylor, a member of the Mat-Su Rock and Mineral Club for 15 years, said she had little choice about whether she would have an interest in rocks growing up: Her father was a miner and avid rock hound.

“My dad would bring home rocks from the mines in Butte, Mont., so I grew up with rocks,” Taylor said. “They fascinate me.”

Taylor remembers the early days of the club in 1993 when there were just a few members meeting in the Colony High School gymnasium. Her passion is fossils, petrified wood and agates, smooth stones she has a soft spot for.

“They’re so interesting to me,” Taylor said. “I have one rock with an agate inside, a rare find in my world.”

Marylin Melton has been coming to the rock club for six years, now as acting vice president and treasurer to the growing group. Not content with looking around Alaska for her stones, Melton prefers traveling to find other enthusiasts like herself. She recently returned from the world’s largest gem and mineral show in Tucson, Ariz., spending most of her time admiring the rare gems and jewels on display from other collectors.

Melton said her home is littered with everything from pebbles to bowling ball-sized stones, proving that her passion sometimes gets the best of her.

“I’m partial to fossils,” Melton said. “It’s an expensive passion to have, but I just love them.”

Nada Reed knows. She’s seen Melton’s home.

“You said you couldn’t buy anymore because you have no more room,” Reed joked from across the table holding Melton’s fossils. “Marylin’s house is like a museum. She’s got all kinds of fossils and rocks.”

“It can be called an addiction, perhaps,” Melton chimed in. “All my rocks are indoor ones. I wouldn’t ruin them by putting them outside.”

Reed said she became involved in rock clubs through her husband, Richard, a collector.

“He likes fossils, but he’s also the biggest rock collector I know,” Reed said. “I have five kids and they would come home after camping trips with pockets full of rocks in Texas.”

Terry Bohm’s hobby is cutting flint, a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz. Over the years he’s learned to perfect knapping the flint to make his arrowheads, also a hobby of his. Earlier this year, Bohm showed other rock club members how to master the art of flintknapping, giving out samples of his work.

“I’ve taken thousands of rocks in my lifetime,” Bohm said. “I am a little more involved today. Every time I come here I pick up more tips and see new ones.”

Ohs remembers Bohm’s first visit to the club, when he brought two large buckets of rocks, hoping to show them off.

“Fact is, he wanted to know what they were,” Ohs said.

Ohs became a member five years ago. He was new to the Valley and was looking to meet people with his same passion and to connect with other rock hounds.

“We’ve grown so much since just over the last year and are always looking for more advocates,” Ohs said.

On the Mat-Su Rock and Mineral Club Web site (Geocities.com/matsurockclub), Ohs posts places around the Valley fossils and gravel bars can be found, as well as photos of “Rockin’ Finds.”

Delight Rose, a former club president and rock collector, isn’t concerned with what non-hounds think of her club. As long as there are others like her, she’s happy.

“People sometimes think you’re totally nuts,” Rose said about being a collector. “It’s a total affliction and I’ve been afflicted since I was a child, but in a good way. This is fun for me and something I look forward to sharing with others.”

Rose’s husband, Bud, has things other than rocks on his mind when he attends the monthly club meetings.

“The best thing about the rock club is the food,” he said. “But I’m mostly a mule for my wife’s finds.”

Roland Stoker Sr. has been hunting rocks for as long as he can remember and is one of the first members of the Mat-Su Rock and Mineral Club. In his Wasilla home, Stoker uses most of his garage as a jewelry station, transforming turquoise and other stones into works of wearable art. As a retired mining chemist and having discovered mineral deposits and rare rocks all over the globe for 28 years, Stoker said Alaska’s rocks are far from extraordinary.

“I haven’t found too much up here that’s impressed me,” Stoker said. “The jade is nothing like down south. The fire opal is probably a favorite, and of course there’s the gold.”

Many of the rock club members agree they have gold on their minds. Gold prices are discussed at meetings and samples from mining and panning trips are shared. But for the rock hounds, its all about the thrill of the hunt.

“It’s Mother Nature at its best,” Melton said. “I need a bigger house, that’s all there is to it.”

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.