Betts Manganese Mines, Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA

Flabellate, black ferrohornblende crystals with garnet in yellow-stained gneiss. Former Alfred Patrie collection.

© 2019 Harold Moritz

Almandine-spessartine crystals (unanalyzed) that were encased in a thin layer of quartz cross-cutting massive garnet. Collected August 5, 2006.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Dozens of gemmy red orange crystals cover this matrix from this somewhat obscure locale. My thanks to Russell Behnke & Carl Francis of Harvard University for assistance in establishing the locality. 60 x 30 x 25 mm. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Field of view ~ 1.6 mmCollected by Tom Mortimer

© Scott M. Whittemore 2005 All Rights Reserved

Massive rhodonite, 35 mm across. Don Swenson specimen. Photograph by Peter Cristofono.

© 2007 Peter Cristofono

Massive dark pink rhodonite with exterior coating of black manganese oxide. 4.2 x 6.8 cm. Self collected in 1961. Michael Shaw Collection.

Rhodonite mass 9 cm long. Collected by Carl L. Hartshorn before 1967. Museum of Natural History, Roger Williams Park, Providence, RI, USA, M1969 12005.

© Michael W. Kieron

Orange spessartine and dark gray metallic rutile crystals. View is about 4 mm across. P. Cristofono specimen. Field collected by John Chipman.

© 2012 Peter Cristofono

Pink vein. Field collected by and in the collection of Barbara Wagner. US penny coin is 19 mm across.

© 2012 Peter Cristofono

8 mm pyrite crystal with surface alteration to hematite and goethite. P. Cristofono specimen and photo, field collected 2008.

© 2009 Peter Cristofono

10cm x 9cm x 7cm collection of Ken Gliesman

© Ken Gliesman 2011

Brown spessartine crystals on matrix. Specimen measures 6.7 cm across. Henry Minot photo & collection.

© Henry Minot

Gemmy crystals in quartz. Field of view is about 2 mm across. P. Cristofono specimen and photo. Field collected 2008.

© 2008 Peter Cristofono

Rutile crystals in quartz. View is 3 mm across. P. Cristofono specimen. Field collected by John Chipman.

© 2012 Peter Cristofono

5mm long rutile crystal was collected by Chris Merrill, photographed by Ken Gliesman

© Ken Gliesman

Golden sprays of grunerite in matrix from the Betts manganese mine. Though cummingtonite was reported from the Betts mine by Quinn (1945), an EDS analysis of this specimen shows it to be the iron-dominant end member, grunerite (see child photo for data).

© 2018 Peter Cristofono

Rounded pyrrhotite crystals in quartz; magnetic. Collected September 13, 2014 on a Boston Mineral Club field trip.

© 2014 Peter Cristofono

A solid mass of rhodochrosite without matrix. From the late John C. White collection of Renton, WA. His label indicates that this was collected pre-1946 and was in his father's collection. Identification based on label and HCl acid test performed 07-16-15.

© Dana Slaughter Minerals

Crystals to about 1.5 mm. P. Cristofono specimen and photo. Field collected 2008.

© 2008 Peter Cristofono

Rhodonite from old quarry area in western Mass. This specimen is 4.5cm wide. Collected in November 2010. Photograph by Mike Polletta.

© Mike Polletta

A classic from the Clifford J. Awald collection.

© Frank P. Butler

Almandine-spessartine crystals (unanalyzed) that were encased in a thin layer of quartz cross-cutting massive garnet. Collected August 5, 2006.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Tabular pyrrhotite crystal with other more typically anhedral crystals in quartz-garnet matrix. Collected June 12, 2016. Donated to the Harvard Mineralogical Museum, Cambridge, Mass.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Pink rhodonite from the old Betts Manganese Mine. 6.5 x 4 x 2 cm. Henry Minot photo & collection.

© Henry Minot

Almandine-spessartine crystals (unanalyzed) that were encased in a thin layer of quartz cross-cutting massive garnet. Collected August 5, 2006.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Metallic gray, terminated rutile crystal in quartz, associated with orange spessartine.

© 2016 Peter Cristofono

7.2 x 4.2 x 3.0 cm A hard-to-find specimen of mostly massive bright pink Rhodonite from the classic locality of Betts Manganese Mines in western Massachusetts. The piece does have a few small crystalline areas, and is really a nice reference specimen of this beautiful material.

© Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics

Almandine-spessartine crystals with clinochlore and quartz. Former Alvin E. Schortmann collection.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Springfield Museum of Natural History

© John Burnham

A classic from the Clifford J. Awald collection. Added in 1955.

© Frank P. Butler

This is a micromount specimen of almandine/spessartine from the Betts Manganese Mine, Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. I acquired this specimen from the giveaway tables at the 2018 Cleveland micromineral symposium. This specimen was originally in the Hugh McCulloch collection who donated it to the Cleveland Museum of Natural ...

© Jamison K. Brizendine

Rhodonite Mass: 62 Polished Collected on family trip to Betts Mine. Thank you to Rick Cernak and Bruce Hooke of Earthdance.

© 2021

Micro spessartine crystal on quartz.

© 2015 Peter Cristofono

A classic from the Clifford J. Awald collection. He added it thereto in 1955.

© Frank P. Butler

polished, child picture will show natural rock as found. This could be the nicest raspberry colored piece that I've found to date. Once again thank you to Rick Cernak for all his efforts and to the Earthdance group and Bruce Hooke for allowing collectors access to the dumps. Chatoyance on bottom of specimen.

© Ken Gliesman

I polished in 2018. Virtually all of the specimens I tested when natural have at least a small amount of rhodochrosite, however they consist mostly of rhodonite. Thank you to Rick Cernak (volunteer Earthdance Mineral Coordinator), Earthdance and Bruce Hooke for permission to collect. For information see: www.earthdance.net/visit/minerals

© Ken Gliesman

Polished in 2018.

© Ken Gliesman

Polished in 2018.

© Ken Gliesman

Spessartine on quartz matrix. Photographed by, and in the collection of Dan Costian.

Spessartine crystals in quartz. Field collected 2014.

© 2014 Peter Cristofono

© Ken Gliesman

Typical chunks of massive rhodonite, with black coating from lying in the dumps for many decades. Quite possibly fine-grained rhodochrosite and kutnohorite in these chunks also. Dimensions are for the piece in the middle back row.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

1 mm orange spessartine with black rutile. Field collected by John Chipman.

© 2012 Peter Cristofono

7.2 x 4.2 x 3.0 cm A hard-to-find specimen of mostly massive bright pink Rhodonite from the classic locality of Betts Manganese Mines in western Massachusetts. The piece does have a few small crystalline areas, and is really a nice reference specimen of this beautiful material.

© Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics

Tabular pyrrhotite crystal with other more typically anhedral crystals in quartz-garnet matrix. Collected June 12, 2016.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

polished in 2018

© Ken Gliesman

© 2018 J.DeFelice

Polished in 2018.

© Ken Gliesman

7.2 x 4.2 x 3.0 cm A hard-to-find specimen of mostly massive bright pink Rhodonite from the classic locality of Betts Manganese Mines in western Massachusetts. The piece does have a few small crystalline areas, and is really a nice reference specimen of this beautiful material.

© Brian Kosnar - Mineral Classics

Polished in 2018, another one of the few raspberry colored pieces vs the common pink ones, notice chatoyance on bottom.

© Ken Gliesman

polished in 2018

© Ken Gliesman

Rhodonite from Betts Mine

© 2018 J.D.

Polished in 2018.

© Ken Gliesman

Dimensions are for rock when both pieces are fitted back together. Specimen is mostly rhodonite but has rhodochrosite (acid test) also.

© Ken Gliesman

Massive rhodonite, with typical black Mn-oxy-hydroxide stains. Former Alfred Patrie collection.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

lots of manganese oxides surrounding the rhodonite/rhodochrosite on this piece

© Ken Gliesman

I picked the specimen up in a trade at Gilsum, NH in the 1990's. It was very oxidized and did not look like much. I shaped and polished in 2018 and loved the improvement.

© Ken Gliesman

Almandine-spessartine crystals with quartz. Former Alvin E. Schortmann collection.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

Almandine-spessartine crystals with clinochlore and quartz. Former Alvin E. Schortmann collection.

© 2020 Harold Moritz

A rhodonite specimen with one flat cut surface. Henry Minot photo & collection.

© Henry Minot

This is a fracture and polished specimen of Rhodonite from the Bett's mine is western Massachusetts. Personally collected by Alicia Benoit this Rhodonite is in the common form of this locality, i.e. massive, opaque, and pink. Gifted to me in 2022.

Orange-brown, "originite prime"-shaped almandine-spessartine crystal on mica matrix. Collected during a field trip to the mine in 9/2025.

© Proj. Copper World

An old-time, colorful sawed end slab from these long extinct manganese mines. The sculptural face features massive rich pink and pastel-pink rhodonite with two connected blobs of black to brown manganese oxides. The two sawed lustrous faces have textured surfaces from being coated with lacquer. First worked in the 1840s, the most active mining ...

© Rob Lavinsky & MineralAuctions.com

Black to gray rayed Psilomelane. Visual identification by the collector with whom I exchanged the piece. The matrix is ​​quartz. Photo with Canon Eos 600 D + Bellows + Rodenstock Rodagon 50 mm 1:4,0 reversed. Photo and collection Giovanni Scapin.

© Giovanni Scapin 2025

A map showing the collecting areas of the site. Credit to Rick Cernak and Earthdance.

© Earthdance

An old-time, colorful sawed end slab from these long extinct manganese mines. The sculptural face features massive rich pink and pastel-pink rhodonite with two connected blobs of black to brown manganese oxides. The two sawed lustrous faces have textured surfaces from being coated with lacquer. First worked in the 1840s, the most active mining ...

© Rob Lavinsky & MineralAuctions.com