Had a great morning at this "gem" of a museum, located right in the middle of Downtown. The scope is vast with a great collection, especially really impressive crystals. The Rose Mofford Collection of "stuff" the former governor collected over her tenure in office is interesting, especially the biggest rattlesnake I ever saw- stuffed- Supposedly the governor snuffed the thing personally. It must have been eighteen inches around and about seven feet long. There must be a hundred different kachinas of all kinds.
There was a clever display for Thanksgiving of an entire feast table, and all the items were rocks. It looked delicious. I'd have liked to see more about the mining technology, but they did have some nice models of open pit copper mines and a cutaway of a shaft with all the timbering, etc. At two bucks a head, it's well worth spending an hour or so there. My son the geologist could have spent a week there, I'm sure.
The nice lady at the front desk was very helpful and enthusiastic, but apparently not a Mofford supporter. I guess female governors are an Arizona tradition. You can take home some rocks from a free dump and they have a pretty nice gift shop with some nice jewelry. You can watch lapidaries cutting gems in a lab in the rear. Outside are some giant mining equipment, but don't climb on them.