Catskill Collecting

Could the "cave" be the Ellenville mine, or a prospect? There is a lot of quartz crystal in the Shawangunk lead-zinc-copper veins (the veins have a lot of open space).

kb

Hello Catskill hunters!!
the Shomgum (Shawangunk) localities have always been a fascination of mine! I have covered many a mile of the hills here in search of old prospects and have turned up many treasures as well
Chiefly the serene beauty the mountains here have to offer
some pretty nice crystal and mineral specimens too;)
I believe I know where you are referring to Gregg if not too far down the plank road to the cave in waterfall locality backtracking along the D&H Canal are many prospectful localities
I do believe though that the main mass of the historical, and once enormous Quartz, Shalerite, Pyrite combo clusters known and seen by me to weigh in Excess of 1100lbs came out of the beginning of the century during Army Engineer projects in the park area at the head of the Smiley Carrageway entrance South of the Sun Ray tunnel/adit.
Still to this day a marvelous seam of Pyrite enriched ore and veins running vertically up the mountain un excess of 15 feet wide is clearly visible on the extremly hazardous and unstable face of the quarry and I strongly do not reccomend anyone try to scale this area to hammer on anything!
The locals wait dilligently year after year to see what the frost heave rewards us with;)
further up the mountain is this very magical place where I can reach deep into natural vuggy hollows and pull out water clear double terminated clusters and solitares, and this I believe sits on a mother load as well;)
Now I see why many a pioneer of the likes of the legendary Tom Quick and Samuel Gunsaulus were so interested in finding the secret "Indian Lead mines" abound of legends of gold and silver here in the unique ores our ridge possesses
With Respect
Tread Lightly
Stonebear

Gregg,

Nice to hear! I lived in New Patz area for 7 years, and in kerhonkson I own land and lived there for three years. Unfortunetly I moved 2.5 years ago, but I frequently visit. I would really like to get together with you and see your collection at a minimum. Contact me off-line if you are interested. THis coming summer I will probably plan a trip for herks and lfuorit ein New Hampshire.

Cheers,
Ian Merkel

Gregg,

Not off-line, but off mindat, on my e-mail.

Cheers!

Hey Guys, I have researched the ellenville adit, check out photos here: [www.abandonedmines.net]

minerdam,

Where are your photos? I would really like to see them.

~Ian Merkel

Hello East Coast rock and mineral people: I used to live in New York until 1975 and spent all my summers in Ferndale. I remember finding huge quartz crystals off of Hwy 52 near Ellenville. I'll be back this summer and would love to muck around in the clay banks again (where I found them 40 years ago..)
but I need a "refresher" map. If I took 52 to Old Plank Road or somewhere nearby, where could I find some crystals or galena? Any help would be appreciated!

Hey Roz,

Good luck! A lot of maerial has been taken in 40 years. The roads have likely not changed much. There are many workings along Berme Road. I have had some luck (nothing huge) but others (above) have more recently found "huge" crystals.

Post your finds when you return.
:)

Ian Merkel

I travel through Ellenville on Route 55 every Tuesday on my way to Poughkeepsie. It would be great to stop off for a couple of hours to do a little rock hounding. If anyone can direct me to Old Plank Road or Berme Road, or anywhere else in the area for that matter, I would be forever grateful. I don't get on the forums or chat much, but you can contact me through email. If anyone would like to meet some Tuesday, I would be interested.

Mark

Ian, I found your post while researching the lead mines up around Ellenville but you mentioned something else Id like to ask about- some nice waterfalls in the Shawgunks. I was planning on making a trip there this summer and since I will be bringing my family, I was wondering if you can give me any suggestions as to trails, areas or specific falls that might be worth seeing. Anything you can provide would be greatly appreciated. thanks/cheers. Roger Morris.

Roger,

If you follow route 55 out of Ellenville and head up over the mountain toward New Paltz/Poughkeepsie, there are many trails easily accessible, not to mention the beautiful views. Also, if you are interested in quartz and pyrite crystals, go to Berme Road Park in Ellenville. It's a very short hike to some interesting specimens. I was just there today as a matter of fact and I will be posting pics of my finds when I return home this weekend. You can email me for more detailed directions.

Mark

I am heading up to Ellenville today to check the area for any promising finds. I plan on spending the whole day in the area. If I find anything, I will post the info here. I have been a long time resident of the area, and it amazes me that I had never heard about the mineral finds until recently! Go figure.....

After several weather and work schedule delays, I finally did make the jaunt up to the Ellenville locations. Frankly, it was a disappointing trip, mostly because I had bad information. One spot I did find some small specimens was at Berme Road Park, where I did find several small pyrite specimens, and one small quartz crystal cluster, and I do mean small, but there was nothing else. And that rock is possibly the hardest rock I have ever worked with. WOW!! The quartz ledge behind my house is a thousand times more productive than the Ellenville site, and way easier to work. Oh well...live and learn. However, I was told to check out the old lead mine in Wurtsboro, just down the road. The locals say that spot is much more productive. I got good directions. So that will be my next field trip.

I took 2 other field trips last week. I did the night UV dig at the Franklin, NJ mineral museum. That was a lot of fun and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I'll be doing that one again in Nov.
I also made a trek to Carbondale, Pa. to the fossil collecting site there. It was open and accessible and was actually a very productive place for fern fossils of several species, calamite fossils which were huge and totally amazing, some quartz crystal and pyrite as well as a few other specimens. I came out of there with the back of my truck full of goodies. The strip mine there is currently being reclaimed and filled in, so that area is out, but the mine spoils are still free for the pickin'.

I also plan on visiting the old iron mine near Andover, NJ in the near future. If anyone has any info or updates on that locale, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!

Jeff

Does anyone know if the Petrified Creatures Museum of Natural History is still open? Are there good fossils there or is it too picked over? It's near Richfield Springs, NY.

well our club went collecting at the old Wurtsboro Lead mine [www.nyow.org]
I was busy working as usual;(
this week I was laid off and went digging for a couple days up on the Shawangunk ridge. found what appeared to be an old pocket that was knapped upon for making scrapers or arrowheads. the quartz there was quite deliberatly worked upon, guess when they call this quite possibly North Americas oldest mine, the authorities just might be right;)
cheers!
Stonebear

Hi KB just readinding your post i was wondering if you could give me some info on the old zinc mine area,i am a fluorescent mineral collector i do a lot of collecting at the sterling hill mine in nj do you think there are any good fluorescents in that area thanks bob.

Robert,

The Shawangunk zinc deposits are sphalerite, which appears not to be fluorescent (at least here). This is different from the Franklin oxidized minerals (not sure if people are confident yet on one mode of formation of that deposit). The only fluorescents I think I may have found in the Shawangunk deposit is a cerussite or anglesite crust that fluoresced weak orange.

kb

Thanks bob

Hi,

How do you get to the Sun Ray Tunnel/Mine ? I know it is in Shawangunk NY. Is it on public land?


Thank You,

Larry

Sorry Larry,

I was only traveling through there on my way to one of my clients.
I'm not from that area, but there are some small clusters of quartz just up the hill from Berme Road Park.

Mark