Buy rocks, dinosaur bones at Wheaton College's Earth garage sale

Wheaton College's geology department has amassed an impressive collection of rocks and minerals in its many decades of field education.

So what happens when there's not enough space for all of those artifacts of natural history?

You have a garage sale, of course.

Indeed, the geology department is hosting the Wheaton College Rock Sale, billed as Earth's garage sale, on Saturday, Sept. 5, and Monday, Sept. 7, in the basement of Armerding Hall, near the corner of Irving and Kenilworth avenues on the college's campus in Wheaton.

Thousands of items, including fossils and dinosaur bones, will be sold for as little as 50 cents. The most expensive items will cost $300 to $400.

Still, the prices are considered rock bottom compared to what Web sites are charging for the same types of specimens.

Geology professor Jeff Greenberg said he and other sale organizers are more concerned about unloading inventory than making a big profit. That's because space will be limited at the new science building the college is constructing.

Of course, the most valuable artifacts in the collection already have been set aside so they can go on display when the new building opens next year.

"We are going to have a new natural history museum, so we have been going through our materials trying to figure out what to put into the museum," Greenberg said. "But we also realized that we have so much stuff. It may be a small department, but people have been collecting things here for 150 years."

As a result, there are countless boxes filled with a variety of "very interesting things," Greenberg said. Some items were collected so long ago that they are considered rare.

Among the minerals for sale are fluorite, quartz and calcite. Greenberg said he expects the fossils and pieces of dinosaur bones to be very popular.

Many of the bone samples - collected decades ago - are from apatosaurus dinosaurs. Apatosaurus is the massive, long-necked plant eater that used to be called brontosaurus.

Wheaton's geology department had a similar sale about 17 years ago as a fundraiser. However, this weekend's event is on a larger scale. In addition to the thousands of mineral specimens and rocks, microscopes, compasses, survey telescopes, maps and other geological materials will be sold.

Greenberg said the sale - which isn't likely to happen again - is a golden opportunity for shoppers to get a jump-start on their rock collections.

"If they (the rocks and minerals) just sit in our closets, they are not doing anybody any good," Greenberg said. "Since we are in the business of Earth education, we think it's really important that people can see this stuff, maybe take it home and learn a little bit more about it."

Credit cards, cash and local checks with identification will be accepted. All proceeds will support student field work and research projects.

<p class="factboxheadblack">Earth's Garage Sale</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, and Monday, Sept. 7</p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> Wheaton College's Armerding Hall, near the corner of Irving and Kenilworth avenues in Wheaton</p> <p class="News"><b>Admission:</b> Free</p> <p class="News"><b>Info:</b> <a href="http://wheatoncollegerocksale.blogspot.com" target="new">wheatoncollegerocksale.blogspot.com</a></p>