By Gemma Baltazar Contributing Writer
Anyone who happens to walk into Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop will most likely not come out for a while.
From dinosaurs and fossils to Native American artwork and jewelry, almost every inch of the space is covered with interesting things to look at.
The shop, 704 Main St., is the brainchild of store owner David Douglass. What began as a small collection of fossils eventually turned into a business that he now runs with his wife, Sandy.
"I started collecting fossils when I was 8 years old," said Douglass, who recalls visiting the Field Museum every week as a kid and having scientists study what he was finding.
Douglass began attending Northwestern in 1970 and took a few geology courses but later realized that geology and school were not what he wanted to do.
"I opened a rock shop in 1970," he said. "And because I was running the shop I had to cut down my course load. I went for a couple years but never finished."
Douglass is more driven by his passion for collecting fossils than the need for a source of income. He said he opened the rock shop so he could finance his travels and continue collecting rocks.
"What I enjoy the most is going out and digging up stuff and traveling to different places," Douglass said. "That's what the shop has enabled my wife and I to do."
The husband-and-wife duo often travel the globe to get the merchandise for the shop, where items fall within a wide price range.
"We have a 60-million-year-old crocodile for sale," Douglass said. The crocodile's price is $3,500. "But we have fossil shark teeth that are also 60 million years old that are 50 cents."
In addition to offering reasonable prices, the store prides itself on selling high-quality objects.
"Everything that we have - even our less expensive items for kids or beginning collectors - are perfect specimens," Douglass said. "I'd rather sell something that's perfect and complete for $5 than get something for $1 that's just a piece of something."
Items in the shop have been sold to everyone from local jewelers in the area to the Field Museum, which recently bought some fossils for its new children's exhibit. But the rock shop appeals to more than just rock or fossil collectors.
For those who aren't necessarily interested in buying something, the rock shop is more than a store.
Douglass moved the store in 1987 and converted the building's basement into a museum, where the couple now display their own private collection of fossils.
The museum has fossils from every geologic time period, and Douglass found about half of the artifacts himself. He obtained the other half by trading with other museums and private collectors from around the world. Admission to the basement museum is free and about two to three school groups visit every week, he said.
It also may help that the man behind the store is a bit of celebrity. Douglass has a fossil named after him because it was unique to science.
Caroline Dewey, who has worked at the store for more than four years, said she didn't know a lot about rocks before she started working at the shop but that it pays to work with a man who is so passionate about what he does.
"I've learned a lot from working here," she said. "I mostly picked Dave's brain and asked a lot of questions."
Reach Gemma Baltazar at g-baltazar@northwestern.edu.
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