Quarantined in the quarries.
A brief guide to Maine quarries
With the quarantine locking us up and keeping us inside. One must wonder how we should get outside more to avoid going stir crazy. Here you go! Today we will be introduced to many quarries in Maine that are open to the public and free to visit.
Many of these quarries have a long history in the state. Some started out as feldspar mining operations. Others were specifically looking for minerals such as amethyst, garnet, tourmaline, aquamarine, etc. A large number of these quarries are located in Western Maine in the area of Oxford county.
Oxford county has had large specimens pulled out for years. A 27 foot long beryl crystal was pulled out of the Bumpus quarry in Albany in the early 1900's. Numerous other quarries such as Bennet, Aldrich, and Songo Pond quarries have all had large crystals found, some within the past 10 years.
Before we delve deeper into quarries, you may be wondering what tools should you bring with you for your first time collecting. The picture to the right is a good reference where to start.
I recommend that you bring the following items as you start collecting for the first time: A shovel, easy for digging deep holes, where more specimens are likely to be found, A 5lb hammer to break open rocks to free specimens, A trowel, A spray bottle for cleaning in the field, a 5-gallon bucket for transporting your specimens, newspaper for wrapping your specimens to prevent damage, eye protection since you will no doubt be breaking rocks and those shards hurt when they hit you, water and food all depending on the time you are going to spend.
Other items you could bring would include a sedimentary rock hammer, for prying loose crystals, chisels and crowbars for breaking rocks, a sifter for finding crystals much quicker in the dirt pile you made.
Our first set of quarries will be located in Greenwood, Maine. These quarries, the Tamminen, Waisanen, and Harvard quarries are all located in about a 1 mile area. All three locations are open to harvesting to the public. The Harvard quarry, which is listed as 'Closed' is currently apart of the Noyes Mountain Preserve. It is still open to the public for collecting although the entrance to the quarry has changed.
At these locations, it is common place to leave with dozens of specimens including garnet, schorl (black tourmaline), quartz, books of mica, feldspar crystals, some 'blobs' of tourmaline, amethyst and aquamarine. Personally I have also collected fully formed quartz crystals and a half in long piece of green tourmaline.
In the PDF provided by the State of Maine, they list all minerals that have been observed and collected from the locations. Our cover photo is from a recent trip in the fall to the Harvard Quarry, a fun day and a beautiful view of the landscape!
Our second, easily accessed location will be the quarries just on the edge of Auburn. Mt. Apatite entrance is located next to the National Guard base on Garfield Road. On your walk up to the quarry, the road will be lined with small pieces of feldspar, quartz, muscovite, biotite and even some amethyst crystals!
To find minerals here, once you hit the quarries, there is a hill on your left side that looks bare, these are the dump piles you'll want to dig through. Since many of these localities started out as feldspar mines, many paid no attention to the crystals found there and tossed them away, bad news for them, but good news for us. Typically while visiting this location I have found a handful of perfect crystals each time although it does require some time and dedication to dig holes that reach the pockets located in the dump piles.
Of course, I won't be able to speak on all of the quarries in the state. I spoke only of the four that I frequent as they are quite easy to navigate to. For my last bit of information I have provided a map of Maine with a two hour drive time embedded on it. As long as you don't live to far up north, you would be able to go to any one these locations with out too much trouble.
For more information on these quarries, click on the yellow dot in the map or visit the link below. Both will bring up a PDF similar to those shown previously
Resources:
“A Collector's Guide to Maine Mineral Localities.” Maine Geological Survey: A Collector's Guide - Chapter 6, www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/minerals/guide/chapter6.htm.
“Maine GeoLibrary.” Maine GeoLibrary, geolibrary-maine.opendata.arcgis.com/.
