My trip to the Northeast

[lizziebird]

I had a blast a couple of weeks ago exploring the northeastern US.

Stop #1

Franklin, NJ

We started the day at the Sterling Hill mine but I didn't realize the tours were only at 1 pm, so we just collected in the dumps for a bit and had to move on. We also visited the Franklin Mineral Museum, which was great, and had an absolutely amazing display of fluorescent rocks and a really nice assortment of regional minerals and fossils. Collected in the dumps here too. This was the first time I have been here and WOW, it was cool. Both places had dark sheds with UV lights so I just gathered up handfulls of rocks and brough them in the shed to look at, found some beauties.
Here's a sample of Willemite and Calcite from Franklin



Stop #2

Bethel, Maine

I had planned to sift through some Mt. Mica dirt at Western Maine Mineral Adventures (they have a pile of material from Mt Mica, you dig out your own bucket of material from their pile, pay per bucket, clean it in the sluice, etc) but they were closed that week. So we went to Bethel Maine, where there's a similar place set up with Mt. Mica dirt. Sifted through 1 bucket, got an assortment of little tourmaline crystals, a few bits of beryl, nothing really amazing, but it was kinda fun. I have some really great stuff from a trip to Mt. Mica a few years ago, and I think it would be hard to beat that at one of these places, but hope springs eternal.

Stop #3

Poland Mining Camp Tagalong to Havey Quarry

Wow, wow, wow. That pretty well sums it up. This was a small quarry but what a lot of different minerals. The folks I met from PMC were great and I came away with a lot of nice material from the Havey mine. We saw but couldn't collect giant boulders of purple lepidolite mica and giant boulders filled with chunks of tourmaline. I scored a giant beryl crystal, about 5 inches across, in matrix. I haven't tried to get it out yet.

Here are some of my Havey quarry finds showing a nice chunk of green tourmaline, an old weathered chunk of pink and green tourmaline, and a 4 inch think "W" shaped mica book



Stop #4

Harvard Mine and Taminen/Waisanen Quarries

We did the long hike up to the top of Noyes mountain to check out the Harvard Mine. I love the hike up here, it's long and steep and rocky and the view at the top is spectacular. The dump piles are super super steep. We checked out the scenic overlook at the bottom of the mine, then continued to the top and poked around in the dumps for a couple of hours. I was hoping to find some puple apatite, but no luck there. I did find this beautiful cluster of terminated glossy black tourmaline crystals.



Here's the view from the Harvard mine



Then down at the bottom of the mountain, there has been a lot of earth movement in the Taminen/Waisaned area. The cookeite here is abundant and very colorful and some interesting quartz crystals too, but I didn't find much that was photo worthy.

Stop #5

Poland Mining Camp Tagalong to Hole in the Ground Quarry

I love the name "Hole in the Ground" - it's very fitting.
Again, a great trip with PMC. I had my mind set on finding a pucple apatite crystal here. There were just loads of garnets, many very gemmy. I found a half garnet crystal that was about 1.75 inches across and quite gemmy (too bad it was only half the crystal, but pretty cool anyway). I did find one fractured purple apatite crystal, which was more than anyone else found that day, but I'll just have to go back again another time and keep looking
The most interesting thing I found at Hole in the Ground was this mineral that kinda looks like pyrite, gold colored but a little bit brassy looking, but the growth pattern does not look like pyrite, more feathery like gold. What do you think?



Stop #6

That was the end of our stay in Maine. Our last rock stop on the way back to NC was driving through PA. We stopped in St. Clair to find fern fossils and just let me saw WOW. What a cool place.





That's it! Can't wait until my next trip north.

[ajk]

Glad you had fun up here in the Northeast! Nice finds! I also found something similar to what you think may be gold around here. Actually, very very similar. I have yet to determine its identity.

[Ryan]

See if an old copper penny scratches it. If so, might be gold. That black tourm is awesome and the ferns are really cool, looks like you found the whole forest!

[pegmatite]

Looks like you had a great trip. The schorl specimen from the Harvard is one of the nicest I've seen.

The gold colored mineral from the Hole in the Ground is most likely pyrite. It's known from there. Should be easy to test by hardness. Pyrite in Maine pegs often is found as micro fracture fillings and tiny veins rather than great crystals. Another possible might be chalcopyrite. Gold would be highly unlikely, but easily checked with a needle. It's very soft and malleable, not brittle like pyrite or chalcopyrite. If your mineral had a silver cast to it arsenopyrite or loellingite would be additional possibilities. Both are fairly common in Maine pegs and look very similar to one another, but generally are more silver than brassy.

Steve

[scott]

Excellent report Liz! It's a beautiful area up there. I'm glad you got to experience that and bring home some real nice stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Scott

[susie q]

Hi Liz..being a gold prospector, there's one little trick we do that can help identify whether something is real gold or pyrite. Take your rock outside on a bright day and take your hand and shade the golden areas..if it retains it's bright yellow color in the shade, it's real gold..if the color dulls conciderable..it's pyrite.

What an awesome trip you had..I hope one day to make a trip up there too.