Rose family wins four firsts, seven ribbons at fair

Fallbrook's Rose family won seven ribbons, including four for first place, along with a special award in the San Diego County Fair's gems, minerals, and jewelry competition.

"I'm glad we did okay this year. We did so-so last year," Erik Rose said.

In 2014, the Rose family won one first-place award, one second-place ribbon, and three third places. Three of those awards were as a family entry while Al Rose and Erik Rose each won a third-place category ribbon.

"Some years are better than others," Erik Rose said.

"There's been a lot of tough competition this year," Erik Rose said. "The quality of what everyone collects and what everyone displays has gone up."

This year, one entry was under Al and Mary Rose. They won first place in the Mixed Display, All One Mineral category for a case titled "Agates of Chihuahua, Mexico", and that case also won the Coordinator's Award trophy.

"That's been something that my wife and I have been collecting since 1986," Al Rose said. "We were pleased to show it off."

"Agates of Chihuahua, Mexico" featured 62 gemstones, although the Rose family has considerably more. "Whatever fit in that display case that's what we put in there," Al Rose said.

"I thought those agates were pretty spectacular," said exhibit coordinator Anne Schafer. "I just enjoyed the heck out of it."

The Coordinator's Award is given for the exhibit the coordinator considers eye-catching and a fit with the year's theme, which this year was Minerals of Mexico. "It should be exceptional and of interest to the public," Schafer said.

Schafer noted that agates in northern Mexico have been harder to obtain because drug cartels have established a presence in the area. "They are mining a lot less than they were," she said.

"They're highly sought after and hard to come by," Al Rose said.

First place in the One Mineral Specimen Outside San Diego County, Beginner, went to Erik Rose for his allargentum dyscrasite pseudomorph with silver specimen from the Bouismas mine in Morocco. Any exhibitor who has one first place in the Beginner category next competes at the Advanced level, so Rose is no longer eligible for Beginner competition.

Erik Rose also received first place in the One Mineral Specimen, Self-Collected category for his garnet with epidote collected in Cooper Canyon in Chihuahua Valley. Third place in that category went to Al Rose for his lepidolite on quartz and cleavelandite collected in 2013 at the Maple Lode Mine near Warner Springs.

Erik Rose entered a dinosaur bone found in Utah in the Open Lapidary, Mineral or Rock class and took third place. Rose did not place in the Five Mineral Specimens, One Species, Worldwide category in which he entered garnet varieties mined in Riverside County, San Benito County, Italy, Brazil, and Quebec.

"We spend a lot of time digging and other stuff like that," Erik Rose said. "We're really good at prepping minerals, too."

Mary Rose had one individual entry and took first place in the Minerals of Mexico, Five Specimens, Any Size class for her azurite mined in Sonora, amethyst quartz from Guanajuato, manganocalcite from Zacatecas, adamite mined in Durango, and wulfenite and mimetite from Sonora.

Al Rose had the third-place entry in the Minerals of Mexico, One Specimen, Any size class. He displayed amethyst quartz mined in Vera Cruz.

"We have very little opportunity for others to see what we collect," Al Rose said.

"We really enjoy displaying at the fair," Al Rose said. "We don't get to show our stuff very often."

Al Rose received calls from people who noted that they saw his displays. "It was nice to hear that people were paying attention," he said.

"Whether we win anything or not we love being at the fair and displaying there," Al Rose said. "The winning part, that's extra, that's just extra fun."

"It's something my family has done for a long time. It's kind of a tradition doing the county fair and it's something I work real hard on and I enjoy doing every year," Erik Rose said.

Al Rose was raised in Michigan and Mary Rose was raised in Chicago. Al Rose began collecting minerals when he was 6; his great-great-uncle owned Hugh Quarry in Ohio. "That pretty much hooked me," he said. "We continued that with Erik."

In the early 1980s, Al Rose began making clocks and belt buckles out of geodes and selling them under the name Rose's Rocks.

The Rose family moved from Colorado Springs to Fallbrook in 1999 and had lived in Los Angeles County before moving to Colorado Springs in 1996.

"I would recommend anyone of my age group try exhibiting in the fair," said the 22-year-old Erik Rose. "It's a very fun experience."