Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum

Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum
1502 West Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85007-3210
Phone: (602) 255-3795
Add to My Itinerary | Nearby Hotels | Map

Average User Rating: (0 votes, add your vote or comments)

©2006 The Phoenix Guide

There are over 3,000 minerals on exhibit. Highlighting the collection are the colorful minerals from Arizona’s copper mines. Among the spectacular individual specimens on display are an eight-foot piece of native copper, a large quartz geode - each half weighing 240 pounds, rocks from the first Moon landing, and a fragment of Meteor Crater’s meteorite weighing 206 pounds. Exhibits of special interest encompass cases devoted to the lapidary arts featuring gemstones, carved semi-precious bowls and spheres, well-known Arizona specimen localities, and fluorescent minerals.

The museum also exhibits the mineral collection of the Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum Foundation and the Mofford Gallery consisting of about 1000 items acquired by former Secretary of State and Governor Rose Mofford during her 51 years of government service.

Prominently displayed outside is the 43-foot tall Boras mine head frame, moved to Phoenix from Bisbee, Arizona. It has been placed along with an 1882 baby-gauge steam train locomotive from Phelps Dodge’s Morenci mine. A mucker car and ore car have been set on rail in the front yard and shortly a 19-foot tall 5-stamp mill will be added to the historic mining equipment. Contemporary open pit mining is represented by a 13 foot diameter tire from a 320 ton capacity mine haul truck and a 27 cubic yard bucket from an electric shovel.

Web Site

Find Nearby
Hotels