Tyson Wells in Quartzsite marks 49 years of winter markets, rock shows

At 121 W. Kuehn St., Tyson Wells has been drawing vendors and shoppers for 49 years. The 2026-27 season runs from October through March in a town whose permanent population was 2,413 in the 2020 Census.

A winter business built over 49 years

Founders Lloyd and Lavoun Dyer opened the business in 1977 as an open lot in Quartzsite, added the Sell-A-Rama in 1978, and handed it to Lavoun’s son, Kym Scott, in 1995. Scott expanded the property with more parking, two more shows, self-storage units, indoor vendor buildings, a seasonal selling lot and a business office, turning the site into a layered seasonal district rather than a single event space. The 2026 season will be the 48th annual show, another marker of how long the winter markets have anchored the town.

Quartzsite traces its roots to Charles Tyson’s 1856 stage station and wells serving freight haulers between Prescott and Ehrenberg. The Arizona Memory Project dates the settlement’s rebirth to 1897 after a mining boom. The Quartzsite Historical Society dates the Tyson’s Well Stage Station Museum’s opening to 1980, after restoration work preserved the original adobe walls.

The 2026-27 show calendar

The Rock & Gem Show runs Jan. 1-10, 2027, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, across 25 acres and 2.2 miles of aisle frontage, with 396 selling spaces and merchandise ranging from gems and minerals to silver and gold smithing and lapidary tools. It is a 10-day outdoor show where buyers and sellers can move through a tightly packed desert market built for serious volume.

• Sell-A-Rama runs Jan. 15-24, 2027, for 10 days and offers more than 850 vendor spaces over roughly 2.2 miles of aisle frontage.

• The Art & Craft Fair comes early in February and adds arts, crafts, jewelry and hobby supplies.

• The Desert Drifters Swap Meet follows Jan. 29-Feb. 7, 2027.

The Market Centre season itself runs from October through March and brings a broad retail mix that winter visitors already know by category: tarps, T-shirts, jerky, clothing, socks, hats, RV supplies, leather goods, jewelry, watches, bead supplies, novelty items, banners, food vendors and a brick-and-mortar game store.

Why the winter surge matters to Quartzsite and La Paz County

Quartzsite’s winter count is much larger than its year-round population. Visit Arizona puts the town’s cold-month visitor count in the millions, the temporary winter population reaches about 250,000 residents, and Quartzsite’s own chamber says up to two million visitors arrive each winter at the crossroads of Interstate 10 and Highway 95. That traffic feeds lodging, retail and service businesses, and the season also creates seasonal employment while increasing demand on public safety, sanitation and lodging.

Gas stations, restaurants, RV parks and repair shops across Quartzsite and La Paz County see the same traffic that fills vendor aisles, because collectors, snowbirds, vendors and day-trippers move between the Tyson Wells grounds, the other winter shows and the main travel corridor through town.

Quartzsite’s name still points back to Tyson

Charles Tyson’s wells were built to serve teamsters hauling freight between Prescott and Ehrenberg, and the Tyson Wells name survives in the market, the museum and the seasonal show complex.