Rock Hounds Find Joy in Earthy Hunts : Hobbies: Fossils, gems and minerals have been turned into dazzling specimens. Show will display collections.

Out in the California desert, George and Marian Kurash were scanning the ground when they stumbled upon a slice of history.

George Kurash, a retired geologist and avid rock collector from Thousand Oaks, reached down to examine an intriguing specimen when he noticed the peculiar indentations of a fish in the side of the rock.

“We had spent hours out there when we spotted the fossils,” Marian Kurash recalled. “We couldn’t have been more happy if we’d found a million dollars.”

It was a chance find--a fossil that George Kurash estimates is 11 million to 13 million years old--but it is discoveries such as these that have hooked the Kurashes and about 100 other Conejo Valley residents on rocks.

They dub themselves “rock hounds.” For 20 years they’ve lugged several tons of rocks, fossils, gems and minerals into their Thousand Oaks homes to be transformed into dazzling specimens of earth’s beauty.

This weekend they will show off their collections at the Conejo Gem & Mineral Club’s “Pageant of a Thousand Gems.”

But the show reveals only a glimpse of what collecting is all about.

Every month, groups of rock hounds, ranging in age from 5 to 90, venture around California’s deserts, lakes and caves known for their deposits of prime rock specimens.

When they arrive at the prearranged stone-hunting sites, the rock hounds abandon their campers and walk over the land, eyes trained on the soil.

“You’ll always be able to tell the rock hound because his head is always down,” said Bob Stultz, president of the Conejo Gem & Mineral Club. “We could walk right by you and we wouldn’t even know you were there.”

Concentration is a necessity, Stultz said, because to the untrained eye, the rocks that hold most gems and minerals look no different from any other.

“When I first went out on a field trip we were trying to find agate for a full day without any success,” Stultz said. “Then one of the experienced rock hounds came up to us and with one swing of his hammer, presto. There it was.”

Now, however, Stultz is more accustomed to the look of a valuable stone. In his home, drawers and shelves overflow with collections drawn on years of journeys that he and his wife Jeane--a past president of the club--have taken all across the western United States.

Stultz’s current fascination is with a rock called Smithsonite, a colorful mineral that comes from copper mines in Arizona, Greece and Morocco.

In boxes piled high in his living room, Stultz packs away the various stones--some so tiny they can only be seen with magnification and others that take up a good portion of the room.

In one cabinet, he keeps the flakes and chunks of gold he has collected while prospecting, one of dozens of rock-related activities.

Gold prospecting, Stultz concedes, is not as romantic as it sounds.

“On one trip to a river in Northern California we found only three flakes of gold for a whole week’s work,” Stultz said. “You don’t do this to get rich, you just do it because the thrill of finding something gets in your blood.”

Club members compare the thrill of finding a particularly rare or beautiful sample to fishing or gambling.

“It’s truly addictive,” Marian Kurash said. “When you find something it’s just exhilarating.”

But Marian Kurash said it is the joy of the hunt that keeps her interested.

“I love being out in nature, walking through parts of the country I would never have gotten to see,” she said. “You just never know what you’re going to find. It’s an adventure every time.”

Since she began collecting rocks in 1985, Marian Kurash has found herself in situations she could scarcely have imagined.

On a trip to Searles Lake, which is opened only one day a year for rock hounds, Marian Kurash recalled standing waist deep in muck, feeling beneath the water and mud for raspberry halite--a dazzling white rock with pink crystal formations.

“When I got one I realized it was so big I didn’t know if I could carry it,” she said. “My husband asked me if I wanted help, but I wanted to get it on my own. When I finally got it out, I felt like I had really accomplished something.”

Once the rocks are gathered, collectors use lapidary equipment to grind, polish and shape the stones. With a little work, Marian Kurash can turn a piece of hematite--a dull black rock--into something resembling a shiny black pearl.

George Kurash said that while some people make jewelry, there are dozens of options on how to treat a rock.

In his living room, he proudly displays a sandstone tablet bearing lines and shadings that resemble a desert scene.

“This is the kind of thing rock hounds do,” he said as he held up the sandstone tablet. “They find natural things and they enhance them until they’re beautiful.”

FYI

The Conejo Gem & Mineral Show, featuring exhibits of gems and minerals from California, as well as demonstrations, door prizes and a silent auction, will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Borchard Park Community Center, 190 Reino Road, in Newbury Park. Admission and parking are free.