Mineralogical Society of Arizona
Arizona's oldest mineral society, founded in 1935 and based in Scottsdale
- Meets
- 3rd Thursday, 7:30 pm, January to June and September to November; also on Zoom
- Where
- Piper Hall, Franciscan Renewal Center, 5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale
- Interests
- Minerals, geology, fossils, lapidary
- Field trips
- Yes, for members, booked through the club website
- December
- Holiday Jamboree instead of a regular meeting
- Newsletter
- Rockhound Records
- Visitors
- Check the website before you go: some events are for members only
Prospect on your own near Scottsdale
40 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
Nearest open public land on our fossil and meteorite map: about 73 miles away.
There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.
About Mineralogical Society of Arizona
The Mineralogical Society of Arizona is the oldest mineral club in the state. It was founded in December 1935 and is a nonprofit educational society for anyone curious about minerals, rocks and fossils, from complete beginners to serious collectors.
The society exists to get people curious about geology, minerals, fossils and stone cutting. In practice that means helping members identify what they collect, learn how to display it or work it into something, and pass all of that on to the next generation.
Monthly meetings are usually on the third Thursday, January to June and September to November, at 7:30 pm in Piper Hall at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, and many are also streamed on Zoom. There are no meetings in July and August, and in December the regular meeting gives way to a holiday party. Dates and places can change and some events are for members only, so the club asks people to check its website before driving over.
Field trips are the heart of membership. They are booked through the website and range across the state: a November 2026 trip went to the Camp Verde area for pseudomorphs, crystals of calcite, aragonite and gypsum that took the shape of an older mineral, glauberite, followed by a potluck picnic. The society also shares trips with other clubs, such as a visit to the Diamond Point quartz crystal area north-east of Payson with the Daisy Mountain club that drew more than 40 people.
Members take minerals into classrooms through an outreach program run with the Earth Science Museum, and they put displays in the big shows: at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February 2026 they showed red, white and blue minerals of the United States for the country's 250th anniversary. The society is also a sponsor of mindat.org, the large online mineral database that collectors all over the world use.
By the count in the 2022 edition of Mineralogy of Arizona, 992 mineral species have been recorded in the state.
Other clubs and places nearby
- Roadrunner Prospectors ClubClub · 6 mi
- GPAA Phoenix ChapterClub · 7 mi
- Arizona Association of Gold ProspectorsClub · 10 mi
- Southwest Paleontological SocietyClub · 11 mi
- Gold Fever of the West Valley (GPAA)Club · 14 mi
- Apache Junction Rock and Gem ClubClub · 24 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Miners Rock ShopShop · 9 mi
- RDH ProspectingOnline shop · 11 mi
- Falcon Metal DetectorsOnline shop · 11 mi
- A & B Prospecting Supplies (Mesa)Shop · 14 mi