The A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum was the featured exhibitor at the 69th Annual Greater Detroit Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show held at the Macomb Community College Expo Center and hosted by the Michigan Mineralogical Society. The show theme was “marvelous metals” and a photo of one component of the museum’s native copper exhibit was on the program.
The museum’s exhibit consisted of three parts, two of which two are now on display in the entrance to the museum: a decorative 450 lb. native copper specimen protruding from host basalt lava flow rock and a 200 lb. specimen with native copper spires extending into an open pocket.
John Peters, exhibits chair, said, “The outstanding ‘copper island’ in the center of the showroom…was simply awesome . . . and we are grateful for your institution’s participation.”
In addition to the featured copper exhibit, the museum also filled a standard exhibit case with iron minerals from Michigan. Ted Bornhorst, museum director, gave a one-hour presentation on Saturday and again on Sunday for show visitors titled, “Michigan native copper: Its geologic setting and origin.”
Recently, at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum Director Ted Bornhorst presented an invited banquet talk on copper-dominated deposits of the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the 6th annual Precambrian Research Center Professional Workshop Series Short Course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Bornhorst and Bob Barron, GMES department facilities manager, led a field trip to the Caledonia Mine for workshop participants. Bornhorst, Barron and Richard Whiteman, Red Metal Minerals, published a guide for the field trip in the workshop volumes titled “Caledonia Mine, Keweenaw Peninsula native copper district, Ontonagon County, Michigan.”