Rice NW Museum of Rocks & Minerals

Swung by here when we had some friends with little ones in town. It’s a pretty cool little museum. The building itself is a converted house, the former private residence of Richard and Helen Rice, and the home itself is interesting (and listed on the National Register of Historic Places). There’s plenty of ornate woodwork throughout (apparently Richard funded his rock collecting via lumber).
In any case, most of the house has been converted
This isn’t a fancy museum; the hours are limited (Wednesday through Friday from 1 to 5, and weekends from 10 to 5, guided tours on Saturday at 2), many of the signs and exhibit labels are clearly self-​made, and the vast majority of their attendance is made up of school tours, but it’s still a nice little diversion. For less than the cost of a movie ticket these days, you can tour the various exhibits.
We took the guided tour, which started in the NW mineral gallery, showcasing items from the NW, such as thundereggs and sunstones. In the main house, the living floor has a few displays, and the bedrooms have been converted. into miniature exhibit rooms. There was a science-​oriented room with some lattice structures, crystallography, and hardness type info, another that focused on lapidary (cut and polished rocks), and another room that focused on rocks that fluoresce, some fossils and meteorites, etc. The basement is the real gem, with a huge petrified wood collection, as well as a large mineral gallery. There’s a small exhibit off the side of the mineral gallery about gem cutting and faceting as well.
Tons (maybe even literally?) of interesting, beautiful, and awe-​inspiring samples.
The materials scientist in me would have loved to know more about the crystallography and lattice structures, but I totally get that that’s a niche, and not something most people would care about, as well as a giant stretch for a small museum like this.
Totally glad that we tagged along with the family and their little ones to check this spot out.