Muncie Rock and Gem Club records

The Muncie Rock and Gem Club was founded in March of 1971 by a handful of members of the local community. Two of the charter members of the club were William "Bill" Dutton and his wife, Peggy. The club states as its mission to inform and educate in the area of Earth sciences, especially rocks and minerals. The Muncie Rock and Gem Club participated in state and national events with other like-minded clubs in places like Hartford City, Indianapolis, and Wabash, Indiana. The club also belonged to a parent organization, the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS). AFMS is broken into seven regional divisions, with the Muncie Rock and Gem Club a member of the Midwest Federation. In November, 2002, the club was voted out of existence, with Bill Dutton as the club's final president.

The club printed a monthly newsletter, The Happy Hounder, started in 1972 by Peggy Dutton and Betty Broyles. The features of the Happy Hounder included club minutes, important speakers and events, and club and member news. Often the newsletter included a feature on a pertinent area that each meeting focused on. Examples of featured subjects included volcano eruption, a sample Mohs' scale, (used to identify rock hardness) and diagrams of rocks and groups of rocks.

Club meetings convened on the first Thursday of each month, with the exception of July and August and were held at the Fellowship Hall of Hazelwood Christian Church in Muncie. The Muncie Rock and Gem Club consisted of an average of twenty to thirty members, most of whom remained members throughout the club's existence. Membership reached a high in the mid-1990s with over thirty members.