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Field Collectingcollecting sites in Vermont

23rd Jun 2010 02:27 UTCAndrew Brodeur

Hi ..... I am going to be in the Burlington VT area on vacation July26th to the 30th. If anybody knows of any collecting sites in the area i would love to check them out. I was told that collecting in VT was limited to gold panning and concretion and fossil hunting. If anybody can shed some light on this it would be great!

Thanks, Andy

2nd Jul 2010 01:08 UTCRachel Cesana

Hi Andy

not sure about collecting sites but a neat place to visit is Rock of Ages granite quarry near Barre VT. here is their web site

http://www.rockofages.com/en/gift-shop-a-tourism

Good luck. It was great to see you at Gilsum

7th Jul 2010 16:35 UTCStephen C. Blyskal Expert

Andy,

I'll second the Rock of Ages quarry tour. Amazing place. Not to be missed is the cemetery in Barre nearby. There are fabulous headstones carved from the local granite - race cars, soccer balls, bi-planes. People actually get their headstones years before they die! This is quite a ways from Burlington though, probably an all day trip.

I have wandered around the Rutland area a bit, and not seen much rock except an outcrop here and there. No minerals to speak of, but lots of pretty schists, some foliated. Occasionally you can find pyrite in broken pieces of schist.

7th Jul 2010 17:29 UTCAndrew Brodeur

Hi guys..... thanks for the info! I saw the Rock of ages quarry years ago with my parents, but I'm sure it has changed a bit! I found a bunch of fossil locations on line right on the lake within 40 miles of Burlington so I guess we will make it a fossil trip, haven't done much fossilling as of yet......Andy

17th Jul 2010 19:25 UTCAnonymous User

http://www.anr.state.vt.us/DEC/geo/pdfdocs%5Crockhound.pdf

Have fun!

5th Aug 2010 04:23 UTCleigh voytek

i went camping in Vermont last week and brought the Vermont geological survey info listed above. Not only is the info ancient (> 40 yrs old ) i failed to find locations and even the roads in the directions! frustrated , i called the VGS directly and was told by a very sympathetic and apparently knowledgeable girl who told me she could not find the location (Brandon kaolinite) either. she said it was bulldozed over.( along with the missing fork in the road ????) she was very nice and honest when she suggested Maine or New Hampshire.i also searched for the Orem lead mine in Brandon (from an old Ronald Januzzi book )in vain even after supplying directions to the town hall.i suggest if you camp in Vermont use the VGS information to light your campfire!

5th Aug 2010 12:59 UTCWoodrow Thompson

Much of the best mineral collecting in Vermont was in the asbestos and talc mines, which are now mostly closed and off-limits to collectors. I suggest you contact the Burlington Gem and Mineral Club and see what ideas they can offer:

http://www.burlingtongemandmineralclub.org/index.html

Maybe you'll have good luck with the fossils, but the development taking over Vermont (and the Lake Champlain Valley area especially) doesn't bode well for access.

Woody Thompson

5th Aug 2010 16:20 UTCStephen Rose Expert

A couple of years ago while visiting relatives on North Hero Island on Lake Champlaiin I found some excellent, bright pyrite crystal nodules up to a couple of inches in the (I believe) Ordovician shales on the west side of the island. These are the organic-rich shales that are well known for good trilobite specimens and I would bet that, as Woody mentioned, the Burlington Gem and Mineral Club would be able to point to some collecting spots.

Cheers!

Steve

7th Aug 2010 00:52 UTCAndrew Brodeur

Hi guys, thanks for all the info, Had a great trip to Burlington! The one spot I went to from the Burlington Clubs site was a location at Chimney Point Bridge.... which got demolished last winter and now there is 2 ferry docks in it's place while they rebuild the bridge, needless to say i didn't get to go collecting in that spot. I should have gone north towards Grand Isle but I didn't. I did find some cool sand ripple fossils along the Winooski river in Colchester VT !.....Andy

8th Aug 2010 02:27 UTCAnonymous User

leigh, I wasn't able to find the Brandon kaolinite either. But quite a few of the other directions are correct and usable. I know because I have gone to them. Sadly the area under the bridge at Chimney Point is gone now that the bridge is gone. I had collected excellent specimens there. Woody is right, the best mines are closed to the public. Another source I used was Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire.

andrew I'm glad you didn't leave empty handed. But then there is so much to do and see in Vermont no one would go away unhappy.

8th Aug 2010 03:26 UTCAndrew Brodeur

I found that Lake Champlain offered up some nice little pieces of driftwood that will make some interesting mineral stands as well as some really cool beach stones and we had fun, that's what vaca is for!!! thanks again......Andy

15th Sep 2017 22:37 UTCPaul Monti

So, it's been ten years since this posting. I'm planning a club trip to Vermont, anything new on mineral and fossil collecting sites in the Green Mountain State. Thanks in advance.

17th Sep 2017 00:28 UTCDonald B Peck Expert

Paul, It has been a long time, and I don't know the situation on access, but there used to be good collecting for pale green fluorite in Westmoreland, and for talc and actinolite in Chester. Both are in the southern part of the state.

17th Sep 2017 03:36 UTCWayne Corwin

Don

Wrong state, those are in NH.

18th Sep 2017 16:31 UTCDonald B Peck Expert

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the heads up. You are right for Westmoreland, but Chester is in Vermont. Chester is a bit further north than Westmoreland.

18th Sep 2017 16:55 UTCWayne Corwin

Just FYI...

The Wise Mine in Westmoreland is now a "CLOSED LOCATION" , as are many locations.

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