Home

States

National Parks

Cheap Flights to Asia

Pictures of Top Cities

Hotels

Popular State Guides

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Hawaii
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Washington
• Wyoming

Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum, situated in Phoenix, Arizona, memorializes the mining industry that made a significant contribution in building Arizona and making it the Nation's number one mining state. The Museum first started as a Territorial Fair Exhibit in the year 1884. However, it was in 1991 that the Museum opened at its present location. At present, it is housed in a historic building named the Polly Rosenbaum Building. The Museum attracts nearly 18,000 visitors and 23,000 school children from all over the world every year.

Today, the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum features more than 3,000 minerals, fossils, rocks, and mining artifacts. The major attractions in the museum include a unique collection of the colorful minerals from Arizona's copper mines, an 8-foot (2.4 m) specimen of native copper, rocks from the first Moon landing, and a fragment of Meteor Crater's meteorite weighing 206 pounds (93.4 kg). Other impressive exhibits include carved semi-precious bowls and spheres, faceted gemstones, and several displays on mineral crystal systems, causes of color, and fluorescent minerals. Besides, the Museum also houses the mineral collection of the Mofford Gallery and the Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum Foundation. This collection consists of over 1000 items attained by the former Secretary of State and Governor Rose Mofford during her tenure of 51 years.

Other attractions at the Museum are the 43-foot (13.1 m) tall Boras mine head frame displayed outside the Museum, an 1882 baby-gauge steam train locomotive from Phelps Dodge's Morenci mine, a 13 foot (3.9 m) diameter tire from a 320 ton (145.1 kg) capacity mine haul truck, a 27 cubic yard (20.64 cubic meter) bucket from an electric shovel, and a 19-foot (5.8 m) tall 5-stamp mill.  There is also a lapidary shop run by the volunteer staff. It serves as a training ground for those who are interested in silversmithing and lapidary arts. Besides, the elegant gift shop in the Museum offers books with over 300 titles on mineralogy, geology and mining, specialty rock items such as bookends, jewelry, and prospecting tools like gold pans.

The Museum also offers over 1,000 educational packets and Teachers' Mineral Kits to Arizona teachers every year. Several outreach programs are also organized by the Museum for schools that are distant from the Phoenix metro area. Special annual events held at the Museum include the Family Day, the Arizona Mineral Symposium, and the Prospectors Day.

• Address: 1502 W Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007
• Hours: Mon - Fri, 8 AM - 5 PM; Sun, 11 AM - 4 PM (museum only), closed on Sundays

Top 5 National Parks

1. Great Smoky Mountains
2. Grand Canyon
3. Yosemite
4. Olympic
   
5. Yellowstone

All 58 national parks.