Over 60 years ago, I was so impressed by the collection of minerals at the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Natural History that I started collecting crystals, a hobby I have continued to pursue to this day. Indeed, my fascination with natural crystals propelled me to study them as a materials scientist at MIT, leading me to work on the perfection of synthetic crystals used in the semiconductor industry at Fairchild and Intel. As a result, I helped position the US through Intel as the leading manufacturer of integrated circuits in the world and became an Intel Senior Fellow living here in Phoenix, all as a result of this initial exposure to natural crystals as a kid.
This story is not unique; most scientists have pursued their scientific career as a result of some influence as a child; a visit to a museum, a discussion with a more senior scientist, an exposure to collecting something in the field. As a result of my interest and continued collecting habit, I have built a wonderful collection of minerals and have donated many valuable specimens to the Smithsonian, to Harvard University, and to the Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum; the intent of such donations is to provide a visible and teachable display to young children who, like me, might pursue a career in science and technology as a result of being exposed to a fine collection in a nearby and accessible museum.
So it comes as a shock and surprise to hear that the fine Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum is to be dismantled, in order to allow a 5C museum to be created in its place....5C standing for Cattle, Citrus, Copper, Cotton and Climate... all very important concerns and industries that contributed to the development of Arizona as a dynamic state. However, as any Arizona resident knows, Arizona is very much dominant in the mining industry... not only for copper, but for turquoise, silver, gold, zinc and other metals, but for peridot found on the Apache Reservation, for garnet, wulfenite (WORLD-FAMOUS WULFENITE!), and a host of other natural mineral specimens. Indeed, no other states in the Union with the possible exceptions of California and Colorado are so well known for their mining history and its contribution to the wealth of our Nation. The very wires that transmit most of our phone calls (until replace by fiber optics and the cell phone) come largely from Arizona copper deposits. And the Native American jewelry with so much silver and turquoise is a legacy of our mining endeavors. While much can be said for cotton and citrus fruits, there is no equivalent in the world for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, by far the largest and best known show in the world for minerals and gems, or for the Quartzite Rockhound Show, also the greatest gathering of rockhounds; Arizona's mining history is unique in the world, and these shows draw tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors to Arizona every year.
So to essentially shut down a world-class museum that not only displays specimens but has a large section on maps of mineral localities, has teaching of lapidary and mineral identification arts, a collection of priceless artifacts dating to the mining history, seems to me unconscionable. Surely there are other ways to accommodate a 5C Museum in some other building; right now, it seems building space is widely available and easily affordable in these times of real estate collapse, even in downtown Phoenix.
The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum provides a priceless service to the community in addition to being a priceless source of knowledge and history about what made this state great. Instead of shutting down this valuable asset, let's figure out how to do both; commemorate the several industries that made Arizona what it is, and retain the legacy we have built up over the past several decades. I donated my specimens to the Museum to help educate future generations of potential young scientists, not to see these
valuable rocks stored away from sight, eventually to be unseen, broken or otherwise lost to future generations. The Museum collection of specimens, artifacts, tools, maps and knowledge is far too valuable and important for it to suffer that ignoble fate which is almost a certainty if the Museum structure and infrastructure is destroyed.
Let us try to do both; preserve the great Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum, as well as commemorate the 100th anniversary of joining the Union, in 2012, but not sacrifice one existing historical and educational monument for the sake of creating the other one. We CAN afford both!
Dr. Eugene S. Meieran
Phoenix, AZ
Member of the National Academy of Engineering