Latitude: 44°16'10"N
Longitude: 70°28'23"W
Granite pegmatite in the Oxford pegmatite field. Mount Mica is the second oldest
elbaite occurrence in North America, after
Clarkes Ledge Quarry, Chesterfield, MA. Mount Mica was found in 1821 by two professional men: one a doctor of medicine, Ezekiel Holmes, and one a lawyer, Elijah Hamlin. The day following the discovery was marked by a surprise early snowfall preventing further exploration until Hamlin's younger brothers drilled and blasted the ledge in the summer of 1822.(Although there are numerous reports which cite Augustus Hamlin's histories of the locality claiming an 1820 discovery, the date is incorrect for many reasons and the actual snowfall date is now known.) Mount Mica is a LCT class granite pegmatite.
The first
Rose Quartz crystals known in the world were found at Mount Mica Quarry about 1913-1915. The second locality for genuine rose quartz crystals in the world, the
Dunton Gem Quarry, Newry, produced it's first crystals in 1927. A third world locality was discovered in 1942, at the
Rose Quartz Crystal locality, also in Newry. Rose Quartz crystals were not known in Brazil until 1958.
It is particularly interesting that some pink Mount Mica
tourmaline fluoresces blue in short wave ultraviolet, but that property is not so widespread at Mount Mica as the very fluorescent tourmaline of the Dunton Quarry, Newry (q.v.). Fluorescence is not a property that can be unambiguously used to differentiate genuine Mount Mica tourmaline from mislabeled Mount Mica tourmaline.
Mineral List
88 entries listed. 64 valid minerals. 3 type localities (valid minerals). 11 erroneous literature entries.
The above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please
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References
-King, V. T. and Foord, E. E., 1994, Mineralogy of Maine, Descriptive Mineralogy, volume 1, Maine Geological Survey, Augusta, Maine, USA, pp. 418 + 88 plates.
-King, V. and Foord, E., 2000, Mineralogy of Maine, Mining History, Gems, and Geology, volume 2, Maine Geol;ogical Survey, Augusta, Maine, pp. 524 + 25 plates.
-King, V., 2000, Mount Mica: The Beginnings of Maine Mineral Production, in V. T. King (editor), Mineralogy of Maine, Mining History, Gems, and Geology, volume 2, Maine Geol;ogical Survey, Augusta, Maine, p. 83-127.
-Guidebook 1 to Mineral Collecting in the Maine Pegmatite Belt
Prepared by members of the Maine Federation Club 1973 Pg. 8
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