Lidstrom, Walt (1920-1976 )

John Walter “Walt” Lidstrom was born in Bend, Oregon on March 7, 1920, the son of Ragnhild T. and Carl Anton Peder Lidstrom, a laborer in a lumber yard. Walt married Elisabeth Daggett (died 1985), and together they had for children: John (1944-1986), Kathy (1949), Mary (1951) and Margaret (Margo). Margo (1947-2009) opened Margo's Rock and Mineral Store in Carmel, California, and operated it for 18 years.

Walt played basketball and football at Bend High School and later, in the 1940s, officiated in local basketball games. He was a rancher who became interested in minerals in 1939, collecting Oregon plume agates. He and Dayton Glover owned the Kidnap Spring mercury mine and the Watson mercury mine, both in Crook County, Oregon. By 1960 he had accumulated a substantial amount of slabbed agates and other lapidary materials, and attended his first mineral show as a dealer. As his business grew he shifted his emphasis to crystallized mineral specimens and became a self-taught expert. He was a regular at the major mineral shows in Denver and Tucson for many years. Often with the help of his wife Liz and daughter Margo. Walt was universally known and well liked for his honesty, knowledge, taste, and easy-going good humor. He died February 22, 1976 in Tucson a few days after the close of the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.