New England Mining Company Quarry (Roebling Mine; Hewitt's Mine), Upper Merryall, New Milford, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, USA
Latitude: 41°39'21"N
Longitude: 73°26'5"W
Several granite pegmatites that, according to Sterrett (1923), were first mined by the New England Mining Co. (Elwell, 1937) in 2 quarries for mica and feldspar between 1880-1900, but gem beryl proved to be a valuable by-product. Many crystals of beryl, some of them more than a foot in diameter, were found in the quarry. In 1896 4,000 gemstones were reportedly cut (Hawes, 1984). Five cut beryl gemstones of various colors "all from Litchfield County" (Clarke, 1889) were donated to the Smithsonian. The catalog (Merrill, 1922) also shows two others, the largest of all being 40.44 carats (no. 1037). At that time the mine was owned by S. L. Wilson and George Roebling. The operation was financed in part by Washington A. Roebling of New Jersey, an avid mineralogist and son of Brooklyn Bridge designer John A. Roebling.
At the turn of the century, new operators discovered uranium salts there and charged patrons to sit and bask in natural radiation thought to cure arthritis (Hawes, 1984).
George Roebling solely owned it in 1914, when he still had a few specimens showing the quality of the gem material.
Cameron and others (1954) reported that in 1944 the property was owned by Henry Orzech. One ton of beryl is said to have been recovered from the no. 1 quarry by Mr. Orzech’s sons since 1936. It was worked sporadically after then. In the summer of 1944, Cyril Ulman of Guilford, Conn., worked the no. 2 quarry for mica for a period of 2 weeks.
Inspired by Roebling's finds, prospector Howard Hewitt worked the property extensively for gem beryl from 1953 until the 1970s, when he worked mainly at the Sawmill Quarry in Haddam after his brother Herb, who had worked Sawmill, passed away. Howard reportedly did work Roebling sporadically until his death in 1981. The property has been closed since then.
Note: Collectors who were there in the 1970s report seeing minerals from Sawmill near Howard's work shack at Roebling. A 1970s advertisement the Hewitt's created shows gemstones mostly from Roebling, but also from Sawmill. So some specimens reported from Roebling may be of questionable origin.
The best description comes from Cameron et al (1954), below are excerpts:
"The workings consist of two opencuts, from one of which a short underground crosscut and drift have been run. The no. 1 quarry is 420 feet long and 60 feet in maximum width and depth. It is covered by vegetation and partly backfilled. The no. 2 quarry is 90 feet long, 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep.
"Five pegmatite sheets or lenses have been mined. The bodies dip moderately to steeply northwest and are enclosed in silicified quartz-mica schist [Dalton Formation]. The schist has been injected with narrow pegmatites. Contact metamorphism has produced abundant subhedral metacrysts of garnet and tourmaline in the schist adjacent to the contacts with pegmatite.
"The no. 1 quarry is in a pegmatite body that averages 30 feet in thickness, strikes N. 55° E., and dips 60° NW. Sterrett (p. 64) states that it is reported to be thinner near the bottom of the cut than at the surface. The small part of the pegmatite exposed in 1944 consisted of three lithologic units:
1. Border zone, lying adjacent to the wall rock contact.
2. Perthite [microcline]-quartz zone, lying inside the border zone. [This zone contained visible beryl in 1944]
3. Muscovite-perthite [microcline] unit, poorly exposed near the center of the pegmatite."
Accessory minerals are biotite [annite], and tourmaline [schorl], garnet [probably almandine], and beryl.
"Four pegmatites (A to D, fig. 125) are exposed in the no. 2 quarry. They strike N. 40° E. and dip to the north at moderate to steep angles. Probably the two northermost pegmatites are roots of a single pegmatite which lay directly above the present topographic surface. Outcrops on the southwestern side of the quarry indicate a similar relationship between the two southernmost pegmatites.
The pegmatites range from 5 to 20 feet in thickness and consist essentially of quartz and perthite [microcline] with various amounts of muscovite, plagioclase [albite], and accessory biotite [annite], and tourmaline [schorl], garnet [probably almandine], and beryl. Small biotite [annite] and muscovite books occur as fracture fillings in joints cutting pegmatite A."
Mineral List
26 entries listed. 18 valid minerals. 1 erroneous literature entry.
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References
Elwell, Wilbur. (1937): Some Old Localities in Connecticut. Rocks and Minerals, vol 12, no. 9, pp. 270-1.
Sterrett, Douglas B. (1923): Mica Deposits Of The United States. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 740, Government Printing Office.
Cameron, Eugene N. and others. (1954): Pegmatite Investigations 1942-45 New England. U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 255.
Schooner, Richard. (1961): The Mineralogy of Connecticut.
Ryerson, Kathleen H. (1972): Rock Hounds Guide to Connecticut.
Januzzi, Ronald E. (1976): Mineral Localities of Connecticut and Southeastern New York State (Taylor Assoc./Mineralogical Press).
Hawes, Peter. (1984): Buried treasure. To a gem hunter, the quarry is riches. The Sunday Bridgeport Post, June 10, 1984.
Weber, Marcelle H. and Earle C. Sullivan. (1995): Connecticut Mineral Locality Index. Rocks & Minerals (Connecticut Issue): 70(6): 399.
Pawloski, John A. (2006): Connecticut Mining (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing).
Merrill, George P. (1922): Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones in the United States National Museum. Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Bulletin 118. Washington, Government Printing Office. p. 13, 15.
Clarke, F. W. (1889): Report on the Department of Minerals in the U. S. National Museum, 1888, in Congressional serial set: Issue 2669 Government Printing Office, p. 195.
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