Bonus History

1974 photo of the Pardos/Kino Rocks and Minerals residential house looking west from Nogales Highway.

A little bonus history of the Raining Rocks new home. While doing historical research on the property and owners, I found a couple fun tidbits about the previous owners. It’s not much, but I enjoyed the insights.

I found a comment in a blog indicating a different date range for ownership of the property/rock shop/owners. Per Mike with CMSM Geology Post Blog “Louis Pardo who operated Pardo’s Rocks and Minerals in Tucson, Arizona from 1948-1972.”. I love that the start date was 1948, however, that may have been for Lois Davis’ gift shop. Louis shows up in City of Tucson records in the 1960s. We know from the appraisal and City of Tucson records the transfer from Louis to Tony was June/July 1974.  
(https://csmsgeologypost.blogspot.com/2020_08_08_archive.html)

I also found a reference that the Pardo family was involved in the fledgling Tucson Gem and Mineral show. Per a Tammy Honaman recounting of early Tucson gem and mineral history “How the Tucson Shows Got Their Start” on the Interweave website dated January 12, 2022: “The three Pardos — Don, Louis (jr? since at under 12 it would be difficult to buy and operate a rock shop), and Della — all won first-place ribbons in the under-12-year-old exhibitor category that year (1957), and had their names and faces in the Tucson papers.” I’m going to see if I can find the newspaper reports, if so, I’ll post them in a blog.
(https://www.interweave.com/article/jewelry/tucson-shows-got-start-history/#:~:text=1955%3A%20Start%20of%20the%20Tucson,the%20one%20held%20in%20Phoenix.)