How a childhood rock collection morphed into a small-town Sask. attraction

Allison Bamford reports on how a museum in rural Saskatchewan containing over 1,000 items was sparked by the curiosity of one small boy a decade ago.

Nestled on a quiet main street in the small prairie town of Radisson, Sask., sits a hidden gem, thousands of them.

The Sesula Mineral & Gem Museum exhibits more than 1,500 rocks, gems and fossils. But if you ask the curator, Judah Tyreman, there are plenty more in storage.

“I’m getting to a point where I have accrued so much that I’m losing track,” he said.

“It’s a good thing I suppose.”

Tyreman, 21, has spent the last decade expanding his collection that includes rocks from around the world, fluorescent minerals, a fossilized baby mammoth tooth and a permanent display of Canada’s only baby T-Rex. He even had a meteorite at one point.

“I like shiny things,” he said.

His fascination with rocks started at nine years old. He’d collect them from along the railroad tracks and polish them with his rock tumbler. Eventually, he started purchasing rocks, then inherited some from a fellow collector.

Within a couple of years, Tyreman’s collection had outgrown his family home.

“They were everywhere. We had things in cupboards. We couldn’t eat off the table for like a month,” he said.

“My mother once said to me, ‘I don’t care if you open a store or a museum, just get the rocks out of my house.’”

And that’s what he did.

At 11 years old, Tyreman opened the museum with the help of his family. They slapped some paint on the walls and brought two foldable tables to display the collection.

“It was pretty barebones for the most part,” Tyreman recalled.

Now, he’s running out of space to add new displays.

Coralie Campion, an employee at the museum, called it organized chaos.

“I was a little bit overwhelmed the first time I walked here because there were just so many things. You don’t even know where to look,” she said.

Visitors are often shocked by the size of the collection, according to Campion, and pleasantly surprised to learn that they can pick up the rocks on display.

“The hands-on part is really nice because usually when you go in museums you cannot touch and I like to feel the texture,” Campion said.

Feeling the texture and weight of the rocks is a highlight for many of the younger visitors, she said.

The museum attracts all ages from around the world. People from as far away as China, Israel and Russia have stopped in after seeing a sign for the museum on the highway.

On Wednesday, a family Manitoba popped by just moments after the doors opened at 10 a.m. Nearly a decade in the business, and Tyreman says he’s still surprised at how far people will travel just to see his collection.

“I didn’t actually think people liked rocks like I did, but I’ve found out differently,” he said.