Category Archives: Club House

Our clubhouse, at 11969 Creek Road, Ojai, CA, across the street from Camp Comfort, is where members can learn lapidary, use the library, and enjoy the museum. The Pebble Pups meet here, and we also hold our picnics at the clubhouse. The clubhouse is open twice a month. Third Saturday: open to anyone and everyone, but only certified club members can use the lapidary equipment. Anyone is free to come, including non-club members, to see the workshop and/or museum rooms and to find out what we’re all about. Pebble Pups meet at 10 on the 3rd Saturday. First Sunday: open only to club members, and only to those who have taken our cabbing basics class and been certified to use the equipment.

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Pebble Pup News – March 2023

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling, pages 18-19:  March 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

Pebble Pup News 2023

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling:  June 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling:  May 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling, page 17:  April 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling:  March 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

Feburary RR Pups article

Read more about what we are up to in Rockhound Rambling, pages 15-17:  February 2023 Rockhound Ramblings

VGMS Gem, Rock and Fossil Library Challenge

Set up a gem and mineral (and fossil) little library in your front yard! Read all about it here: gemrockandfossillibrarychallenge.pdf

Contact Lisa for more info.

Learn and Practice Lapidary in Our Workshop

Pursue individual lapidary and jewelry-making projects under the supervision of our shop stewards. The workshop space is divided between two buildings. Our garage holds slab saws and trim saws for cutting rocks to size for lapidary work. And within the clubhouse, the kitchen and laundry rooms have been converted to hold grinding and polishing units to craft cabs. The shop also features a fossil-prep station for extracting small fossils from matrix. Members must be certified by a shop steward in order to use the equipment. A request for certification can be found in the Member Area of the website.

The VGMS Library Online

Our library collection contains over 600 books covering the full spectrum of the earth sciences, mineral and fossil collecting, lapidary arts, petrified wood, meteorites, gold prospecting and more. Many of those books focus specifically on California – its mining history, field trip localities, minerals and fossils. The Field Guide section contains field guides to almost all of the states. The collection also holds hundreds of issues of such magazines as Rock & Gem, Lapidary Journal and Gems & Minerals. Many of these contain articles with field trip directions and step-by-step instructions for lapidary projects. The library room has a large reading table so you can use our monthly workshop hours to sit and browse.

Our book catalog is now online: VGMS Book Library.

Learn About California Minerals and Fossils at our Museum

VGMS Museum Flyer

Ventura Gem & Mineral Society established the Ray Meisenheimer Memorial Museum, home to the Bruno & Opal Benson Fossil Collection and varied educationally oriented exhibits. Located in buildings at Camp Comfort (Ventura County Parks system) in Ojai and open by advance appointment only, the facility also houses our club workshop and library. Several of our exhibits and hands-on collections have been set up specifically to match California earth science curriculum standards for elementary and high school students as well as to help Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts earn merit badges related to geology. To arrange a field trip visit with your classroom or scouts, call (805) 312-VGMS (8467) or email the society via our Contact page. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, education is our business, and, given sufficient advance notice, we’ll be happy to assist you and your students.

Museum2023

Mural Room – Pleistocene Fossils & Minerals

Proboscideans Case 2023

Proboscideans (Mammoth, Mastodon, Gomphothere)

Lapidary Arts

Lapidary Arts

Map to Clubhouse