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Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society

Las Vegas gem and mineral society whose roots go back to the Hoover Dam years

Meets
1st Monday, 6:00 pm (2nd Monday if the 1st is a holiday); no meeting in December
Where
Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge, 1601 E Washington Ave, Las Vegas
Lapidary center
3111 S Valley View Blvd, unit E125, Las Vegas
Public claim
Ore Car Mining Claim, off North Shore Road near Lake Mead
Spring show
Rock and mineral show at the Boulder City Spring Jamboree, May (2 to 3 May 2026)
Annual show
Viva Las Vegas Rocks!, every November (6 to 8 November 2026, Santa Fe Station)
Newsletter
The Polished Slab, published since 1940
Archive
UNLV Special Collections, collection MS-01188
Kids
Kids Club
Member of
American and Rocky Mountain federations of mineralogical societies

Club with field trips for members

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

sngms.net ↗facebook.com ↗

Email:

Prospect on your own near Las Vegas

3 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.

33 fossil and meteorite 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.

Open the gem and mineral map around Las Vegas →Open the fossil and meteorite map around Las Vegas →

Prospecting and collecting rules in the US →

About Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society

The Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society traces its line back to the Prospector's Club, started by Las Vegas rock collectors in the early 1930s, when the building of Hoover Dam was drawing people into southern Nevada. In 1950 the club incorporated as the Clark County Gem Collectors and held its first meeting at the Parks Museum, then on the eastern edge of town. In November 1967 a group split off as the Las Vegas Gem Club. The two lived side by side for decades, with many people belonging to both, until their members voted late in 2002 to merge, and the new society met for the first time in January 2003.

Its newsletter, The Polished Slab, has come out since 1940. Today the society runs the Lapidary and Education Center on South Valley View Boulevard, a shop and classroom where members cut and polish stone and take classes in jewelry making, silversmithing, beading and faceting. It also has a Kids Club, funds a geosciences scholarship for UNLV undergraduates, and relies entirely on volunteers: no position in the club is paid.

The paper trail of those ninety-odd years is now in a university archive. UNLV Special Collections and Archives holds the society's records as collection MS-01188, running from 1950 to 2024: minutes and field trip files of the two older clubs and of the present society, photographs from the 1970s onward, and scans of the Gem Times and The Polished Slab.

The society keeps a mining claim that anyone may visit. The Ore Car Mining Claim lies off North Shore Road just outside the boundary of Lake Mead National Recreation Area, reached from the turnoff at mile marker 16 and a track toward the old Anniversary Mine. Collectors find Christmas, lilac and bacon agate there, plus rocks from elsewhere that members leave on purpose, some already slabbed, and the claim has geocaches as well. Commercial digging is not allowed, and because the approach crosses the recreation area, visitors may need a park pass.

Field trips for members go to many places through the year and are announced in the newsletter and by email. They are called off after rain in the previous 24 hours or in strong wind, and the club publishes a desert safety list: drive in convoy within sight of the car ahead, keep out of old mine workings, wet a rock with a spray bottle instead of licking it, and never take more than you need.

Meetings are on the first Monday at 6:00 pm, moving to the second Monday when the first is a holiday, at the Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge on East Washington Avenue, and visitors are welcome. In spring the society brings a rock and mineral show and sale to the Boulder City Spring Jamboree, held on 2 and 3 May in 2026, with activities for children. In November comes Viva Las Vegas Rocks! at the Santa Fe Station: the 2025 edition was the 23rd, with about 65 dealers, artists and exhibitors, and the 2026 show, from 6 to 8 November, has silent auctions every hour, stone polishing demonstrations and a talk by geologists of the BLM Las Vegas Field Office on casual use of public lands. The year closes with an awards banquet on 6 December.

Other clubs and places nearby

Where to buy gear nearby

Sources