At least six granite quarries were formerly worked on Rollstone Hill -- including the (John) McCauliff, (O. E.) Litchfield, and (Henry) Godbeer quarries, with the McCauliff being the largest of these. In 1928, the McCauliff Quarry Company acquired the other quarries which had been operated by independent companies. The locality is often now referred to as simply "Rollstone Hill Quarry." Granite was quarried here from before 1830 until 1941. The name "Rollstone Hill" was in use at least as early as 1731.
C. Stanfield Hitchen (1935) studied the pegmatites on Rollstone Hill and named the following types: (I.)
type. In addition, rare
veins also occur. Only one pegmatite, a beryl type, showed significant zonation, and gem beryls were collected from the
core. A fine specimen of radiating "sunburst"
A. C. Hamlin (1884) enthusiastically reported on beryl from the locality: "At the quarries on Rollestone [sic] Mountain in Fitchburg, beryls of a rich golden color have been blasted out. Some of these approach the
in hardness and hue. Others so closely resemble the yellow diamond that they may readily be taken for that superior gem. The refractive power of these yellow stones is remarkable; and the goniometer will probably reveal a higher index than is accorded to all the varieties of beryl by the learned Abbé Haüy." Beryl is extremely rare now that the quarries are inactive.
37 entries listed. 25 valid minerals.
Carter, James G. and William H. Brooks (1830): A Geography of Massachusetts, Boston: Hillard, Gray, Little and Wilkens, p.146.
Hitchcock, Edward (1833): Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, p. 17.
Torrey, Rufus C. (1836): History of the Town of Fitchburg, pp. 6-7.
Hitchcock, Edward (1841): Final report on the geology of Massachusetts, Volume 1, pp. 148-149.
Hamlin, A. C. (1870): The Gems of the United States in
Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Eighteenth Meeting, p. 212.
Hamlin, A. C. (1873): The Emerald. (
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, pp. 143-144.)
Hamlin, A. C. (1884): Leisure Hours Among Gems (Boston: James R. Osgood & Company), p. 313.
Mason, Atherton P. (1885): Fitchburg in 1885. (
The Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, p. 341.)
Hartwell, Emory Adams (1899): Geological Features of Fitchburg in
Proceedings of the Fitchburg Historical Society vol 3, 1902.
Dale (1910): Supplemental Notes on the Commercial Granites of Massachusetts (USGS Bulletin 470).
Schaller, W.T (1918): "Gems and Precious Stones” in Mineral Resources of the United States 1916, Part II, Nonmetals, p.891.
McCaskey, H. D. (1919): Mineral Resources of the United States 1916, p.891 (USGS)
Emerson, B. K. (1917): Geology of Massachusetts and Rhode Island (USGS Bulletin 597).
Lewis, Lyman W. (1927): The Paragenesis of the Granite Pegmatite of Fitchburg, Massachusetts (abstract) in Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Mineralogical Society of America (
American Mineralogist 13:113).
Pit and Quarry (1928): "Granite Company Expands" (Vol. 16, page 91.)
Lane, Alfred C. (1933): Age of Fitchburg Granite (
Science 78:435). Gives a microchemical analysis of a sample of
uraninite.
Hitchen, C. S. (1935): The Pegmatites of Fitchburg, Massachusetts (
American Mineralogist 20:1-24).
Kitson, John (1938): R. & M. A. Outing in Massachusetts. Western Branch. (
Rocks & Minerals 13:245).
Billings, Marland P. (1941): Pegmatites of Massachusetts. (Prepared under a cooperative project for geologic investigations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
Palache, Charles. (1949): The Fitchburg Rollstone (
Rocks & Minerals 24:347).
Bjareby, Gunnar (1962): Fifty Years of Mineral Collecting, Part V. (
Rocks & Minerals 37:565-568)
Kirkpatrick, Doris (1971): The City and the River, Vol. 1. (Fitchburg, MA: Fitchburg Historical Society).
Grauch, R. I., and Zarinski, Katrin (1976): Generalized descriptions of uranium-bearing veins, pegmatites, and disseminations in non-sedimentary rocks, eastern United States. USGS Open-File Report OF 76-582.
Gleba, Peter (1978): Massachusetts Mineral and Fossil Localities.
Sinkankas, John (1989): Emerald and Other Beryls, p. 557.
Gaines, R. V., et.al. (1997): Dana’s New Mineralogy, 8th Edition. Page 1264.
Skehan, James W. (2001): Roadside Geology of Massachusetts.
Fitchburg Historical Society (2005): Fitchburg (Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing)
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