Imperial Valley Gem & Mineral Society
A desert lapidary club with a year-round clubhouse at the fairgrounds and a gold prospecting division
- Meets
- Wednesday evenings, 7 PM, September to June; new members welcome at any meeting
- Where
- Gem & Mineral Building, Imperial Valley Expo fairgrounds, 200 E. 2nd St., Imperial
- Interests
- Lapidary; rock, gemstone and mineral collecting; gold prospecting
- Outings
- Gold club on the first Saturday, gem and mineral club on the third Saturday (2021-22 schedule)
- Fair
- Clubhouse open to the public during the California Mid-Winter Fair
- facebook.com/ivgms (501 followers, October 2026)
Prospect on your own near Imperial
24 gold spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
7 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.
About Imperial Valley Gem & Mineral Society
The Imperial Valley Gem & Mineral Society is a nonprofit for the hobby of lapidary and of rock, gemstone and mineral collecting, and it sets out to be a home base where people with the same interest can find help across gems, minerals and lapidary. It meets weekly from September through June, on Wednesday evenings at 7 PM, in the Gem & Mineral Building on the Imperial Valley Expo fairgrounds at 200 East 2nd Street in Imperial, and newcomers can join at any meeting. The first meeting of each month is an education or fun night: speakers and local people talk about the desert and its rocks, people from the lithium mines once came in to talk to the club, and when no speaker is booked there are rock identification games.
The building is the club's permanent clubhouse all year, and during the California Mid-Winter Fair the club opens it to the public, away from the midway and the livestock barns, to show members' rocks, gemstones and minerals. A 2024 report from the fair found members cutting, engraving and polishing stone: saws of several sizes for trimming rough and making jewelry, tumblers that turn plain pebbles into the shiny stones everyone knows, and a rock tree game where children spin a wheel and win three small, colorful rocks.
Gold has a place of its own in the club, whose gold prospecting division has many seasoned members glad to help. On the 2021-22 schedule posted on the club's website, the gold club went out on the first Saturday of the month to a claim, meeting at 7 AM at the railroad crossing on Ogilby Road with food and plenty of water, while the gem and mineral club went out on the third Saturday; destinations were picked at the monthly meetings. Members also take families out to the desert on field trips. The website has not been updated since that season, so the meetings and the club's Facebook page are where current outings are announced.
Other clubs and places nearby
- Wiley Well District Geode BedsFree public dig · 50 mi
- Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology SocietyClub · 55 mi
- Borrego Rock and Gem Club (BRAG)Club · 55 mi
- Red Cloud MinePay-to-dig · 59 mi
- El Cajon Valley Gem & Mineral SocietyClub · 80 mi
- Palomar Gem & Mineral ClubClub · 89 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Miner's Gems and MineralsShop · 95 mi
- T-Rocks in QuartzsiteShop · 95 mi
- Gem World (Quartzsite)Shop · 95 mi
- Half Fast Mining Co.Shop · 96 mi