An abandoned pyrite mine located about 5 miles North of Charlemont near the former mining village of Davis. Started in 1882, the operation ceased in 1911 after the mine caved in. Also worked for copper (Day, 1888). Owned by Herbert J. Davis.
Hawley "Mineral Belt" stratabound massive Fe-(Zn-Cu-Pb) sulfide deposit.
A. G. Dana (1885) made an early report: "In some car loads of
brought to New Haven, Connecticut, from the mines of J. M. Davis & Co, in the town of Rowe, Massachusetts, eight miles east of the Hoosac tunnel, I found some fragments of the mineral
. On visiting the locality I learned that the gahnite occurred on the outer portions of a 'vein' or 'lenticular mass' of pyrite, of exceptional purity varying from seven to twenty feet in thickness. The including rock is gneiss and schist. The mine had, at the time of my first visit, reached a depth of 200 feet. The waste heaps afforded a large amount of material and some good specimens, though the hardness of the enclosing rock made it difficult to obtain the crystals unbroken. Part of them were entirely embedded in the pyrite and part seemed to have once lined cavities, most of which had since been filled in by quartz and the rest by
...
Besides the pyrite, which is seldom found in crystals of any size, the chalcopyrite and the quartz, the minerals associated more or less intimately with the gahnite are: thin plates of titanic iron, sometimes an inch across; steel gray
61 entries listed. 56 valid minerals.
Dana, Arnold Guyot (1885).On the Gahnite of Rowe, Massachusetts (
American Journal of Science, 3rd series, Art.LVIII, p.455-456.)
Crosby, W. O. and Brown, Charles L. (1888)
Gahnite, or Zinc-Spinel, from Rowe, Mass. (
Technology Quarterly, Boston, MA: MIT, May 1888, p.408.)
Day, David T. (1888). Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1887 (Washington, DC: USGS)
Dana 6:1059.
Rutledge, J.J. (1906): The Davis Pyrites Mine, Massachusetts (Eng & Min Journal, Oct. 13, 1906)
Weed, Walter H. (1911): Copper Deposits of the Appalachian States (USGS Bulletin 455), pp. 33-34.
Perry, Elwyn L. (1934): The Hawley Mineral Belt, Massachusetts (
Rocks & Minerals 9(7):93-99.)
Brown, X. (1960). History of Rowe, Massachusetts: 1882-1911. The Rowe Historical Society Publication. 3rd Edition. (White Eagle Printing, Adams, MA).
McCarthy, Helen (1967): The Story of Davis Mine: Rowe, Massachusetts (Rowe Historical Society)
Ackerman, Jerry (1982): Mineral hunters put town on edge (
Boston Globe August 15, 1982).
Field, S. W. (1985): Mineralogy and Petrology of the Davis Mine, Rowe, Massachusetts. M.S. Thesis, Dept. of Geology and Geography, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Gál, N.E. (2000). The impact of acid-mine drainage on groundwater quality, Davis Pyrite Mine, Massachusetts.Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Geology and Geography,University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Cerato, Amy (2003): Mineralogical Study of Davis Mine, Rowe, MA, Using X-Ray Diffraction Techniques.
Yuretich, Richard F., Bloom, Jessica E., and Cerato, Amy B. (2004): Environmental Consequences of Acidic Drainage from Davis Pyrite Mine, Rowe, Massachusetts. Northeastern Section (39th Annual) and Southeastern Section (53rd Annual) Joint Meeting GSA.
Mine Water and the Environment 26 (2007) 2-13.
Miller, Karen S. (2011): Jarosite Formation at the Davis Mine, Rowe, Massachusetts. Masters Theses. U Mass. Paper 700.
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