FORTUNA, Calif. — Don’t be petrified of the roadside dinosaurs off Highway 101 in Fortuna, they’re just advertising the shale at Chapman’s Gem and Mineral Museum! Hopefully you like rock puns because museum owner Sharon Brown loves making fun of minerals.
“Where do rocks go to drink? The river bar,” said Brown.
It takes a boulder person than most to tell jokes like that, but when you have one of the largest private rock collections in California, you’ve got a few funny gems lying around.
“We have tons of rocks, literally,” said Brown, who is a funny lady but doesn’t take the family business for granite.
The collection has sedimental value. Her father, Buzz Chapman, opened the museum in 1963.
“[When] my mom met him and they got married, my mom had a choice of liking rocks or not. He always worked [outside], and so my mom did the lion's share of the work,” said Brown.
The business got off to rocky start and today there’s just about every kind of rock, mineral and fossil you can think of.
“We’ve got opals, two halves of a geode from Brazil, the left thigh bone from a sauropod dinosaur,” said Brown as she moved among just a few of the displays.
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Buzz Chapman was well known in the rock collecting community. Anytime someone asked to see his collection he would say, “of quartz you can.” Brown and her husband continue to share the collection with everyone to this day.
“We don’t charge admission because we want people to see it,” said Brown.
If things look a little out of place, it’s because an earthquake hit the museum at the beginning of 2023. Sharon lost her marble cleaning up after the display hit rock bottom.
“After the earthquake they were all down here,” said Brown, pointing to the lowest shelves of her display cases.
If you are looking to start a rock collection yourself, there’s plenty for shale outside. If you like rock jokes, ask Brown to tell you one. She is what you call a “Rockthor." She wrote a rock joke book and several Mineral Mysteries.
“The Calcite Quartz Mystery takes place in Tucson, Arizona, at a big rock show,” said Brown.
When Buzz Chapman died in 2003, local artist Hobart Brown made a statue in his honor. Brown says it’s a reminder for anyone who enters the museum that rock collections should be shared and not locked up in a safe.
“I personally think that God has a mighty paintbrush and people should see it," said Brown.
It’s crystal clear, she's in lava with this place and she thinks you will be too.
MORE ROCKY RIDES FROM THE BACKROADS: Here's how gigantic, round rocks ended up on the Mendocino Coast at a place called 'Bowling Ball Beach.'
