Erik Rose wins two donated awards for beryl specimen

Erik Rose won first place in the “One Mineral from San Diego County” category of the San Diego County Fair’s Gems, Minerals, and Jewelry competition, and his beryl specimen also won two donated awards.

The morganite beryl with tourmaline and cleavelandite from the Stewart Mine in Pala won the Josephine Scripps Cup for the best mineral specimen from San Diego County, while also winning the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society Award for the best mineral in San Diego County.

“I appreciate that everyone bestowed all these awards on me and that everyone liked the rock," said Rose. "I’m truly grateful.”

The Josephine Scripps Cup is awarded by the exhibit itself.

“It’s definitely one of the highlights of the year if not the last couple of years for me,” said Rose. “I’m glad they recognized my hard work.”

Scripps, who owned the Hi-Hope Ranch in San Luis Rey, is considered one of the most influential mineral and gem collectors of her time. She was once the curator of gems and minerals at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.

Scripps is believed to have initiated the concept of grab bag sales, which at the time were sold for 50 cents apiece, and she not only purchased fine minerals and gems, but was also involved in mining ventures and was a partner in some of those ventures. Scripps was involved with several gem and mineral clubs, including the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society.

“It’s an honor and a privilege since she was one of the most important and famous people in San Diego County,” Rose said.

The Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society determines the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society Award.

"It’s an honor that they considered me for the award," said Rose.

Rose has known many of the collectors since his childhood. “I appreciate them all recognizing me for it,” he said.

When special awards and donated awards are determined, the exhibitor’s name is folded over, so that the selectors of the awards are not influenced by their relationship with the exhibitor.

The exhibit judges determine the category awards. Rose added a first-place category award for his One Mineral Not from San Diego County entry. His amethyst quartz on andradite garnet was mined in the Santa Teresa Mountains in Graham County, Arizona.

“It’s quite rare to have amethyst quartz on top of andradite garnet or any garnet for that matter,” Rose said.

The Gems, Minerals and Jewelry competition has a Five Minerals, One Mine category, and Rose took second in that competition. Rose displayed five gemstones from the Little Three Mine in the Ramona area: apatite on quartz over tourmaline, topaz replacing tourmaline, aquamarine beryl on quartz with feldspar, topaz and garnet.

Rose took third in the One Self-Collected Mineral class. During 2016, he field collected a garnet in schist when he was in San Bernardino County.

Rose, who is now 24, was three months old when his parents first took him into gemstone fields.

The Rose family moved from Los Angeles County to Colorado Springs in 1996 and from Colorado Springs to Fallbrook in 1999. Al Rose was raised in Michigan and began collecting minerals when he was six; his great-great-uncle owned Hugh Quarry in Ohio. Mary Rose was raised in Chicago before moving to Linden, Michigan, where she met her husband in high school. Mary Rose began collecting minerals after she married Al Rose.

“I enjoy doing the fair every year," Erik Rose said. "It’s a fun pastime I love doing with my family. It’s very fun to do, and I love seeing everyone’s minerals they put in and the cases that they do.”