In 1953 Ralph E. Merrill was hired by the partners, and bought out their shares in 1954 and 1955. Scott and Mimi had divorced, and Mimi and Ralph eventually married. They each had children before that, and then had two more in 1956 (Wendi) and 1957. Ralph's main interest was more in the rare species, rather than just in showy specimens, so that was the direction he turned the business as time went on. At one time or another all seven of their children have worked as employees for the firm, but eventually all except Wendi (Ace) found careers in other fields.
The business was started in Berkeley, California, but eventually the property that it was located on was purchased by the city for a renovation project. The business was moved to our current location in the desert at 127 N. Downs St. in Ridgecrest in 1970. Five train boxcars and two moving vans were used to move over 100 tons of specimens!
Our stock of minerals has been obtained in a number of different ways. Some was personally collected by each of the successive owners, as well as by occasional employees. Some was traded for, some purchased from other businesses, as well as from individuals who sold minerals, and some came from a number of personal collections. Much of the stock was acquired early on, and in recent years we have only added newly described species to our stock.
I am Wendi Elkins!, and I have worked at Minerals Unlimited (wrapping specimens for the Special Offer sets at first) since I was eight years old, going onto the payroll officially when I was 16, and I have been here almost all of the time since then. I took a year off when I was 19 to work for Si and Ann Frazier, who started a split-off business from Minerals Unlimited in about 1960, when Ralph and Mimi got out of the lapidary aspect of the field. As of January 1st 2003 I am now the owner of Minerals Unlimited.
Mimi worked at Minerals Unlimited steadily until the mid-1970's when she went back to college and eventually taught at the CSUB in Bakersfield for several years, retiring in 1994. She has continued to contribute her writing skills to the business, but spends a lot of time on her computer now with other writing.
Ralph worked continuously at the shop until his death in November of 2001, making Minerals Unlimited a landmark in the mineral world.
Our clientele is quite varied, we provide mineral specimens to collectors, schools and research companies. I look forward to supplying you with specimens, and to your comments.
Wendi
