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Before saying good-bye to New York, and heading up to Maine, Scott (Scott Wallace, Majestic Minerals) wanted to show the claim that he shares with Mike Walter of Geologic Desires. This location is noted for the sweet Diopside, Feldspar, Apatite, and Sphene that has been recovered. After packing the car up, we headed out. Much to our surprise, we found that road up was well maintained because the celluar towers that were errected further up the hill.

Scott’s digging spot, was a short walk into the woods from the side of the road.

This was the first time that Scott had been to the claim this season, however Mike had a pretty big diging operation under way. Unfortunately he wasn’t there when we arrived.

He showed us around the diggings, and told us about the deposit.

We putzed around for a little while.

This is and example of a larger sized specimen that Mike had pulled out earlier.

And a few other pieces scratched from the tailings piles.

Then it was time to bid Scott farewell, and get back on the road. This time it was off to Fryeburg, Maine to camp in our pal Tom Klinepeter’s (eBay seller starkhillgem) backyard.

On the way out of New York we passed an open field housing a sculpture garden. We pulled of the road to go back and check it out.

Turns out it was open to the public, so we took a few photos.

However, we didn’t spend too much time because we had a long way to drive. We did stop at a rest area in Vermont.

They had flowers,

and free coffee.

Finally we arrived in Maine. We were really tired, so after talking breifly with Tom about our game plan for the next day, it was time to get everything together before it dark.

But not before I took some photos of Diane’s (Tom’s Wife) flowers in the back yard.

The Bush farm was our first filming location of the day. Our goal was white tremolite, and possibly dravites. Just like Bowers Farm the day before, it is open to the public as long as you talk to the farmer first. Justin called Mr. Bush and got permission for us to go to the location and film, so we were off to trapse through a dairy cow pasture

There was supposed to be a path leading to the collecting spot, but we found that it was long since gone. So we just walked back to the hedge-row, across the field.

Once we got to the trees, we saw an opening, and decided that it had to be it.

It turned to be the right spot. Right away we saw an outcropping in the middle of the overgrowth.

The tremolite was very plentiful,

and we even found some dravit too.

Then it was back across the pasture…

Driving around, we found investigated some other spots we read about in some guide books, but they turned out to be closed to collecting. On the way to Scott’s house, we saw a rockcut with an exposed vein of calcite. Justin had read about this location in an old copy of Matrix magazine, so we decided to drive back to it and give it a look.

It was posted as private property, so we decided that we would go and talk to the owner.

The land belonged to a lady named Cindy who lived in a farm house down the road. She told us that she had been dooped and lied to by a collector before, and therefore didn’t let anyone collect at the site anymore. However she suggested that we meet her friend Robert Paul Rice that lived down the road. She said that she would show us where he lived if we follwed her in our car. We said ok, and were off on what would turn out to be a fun adventure.

Paul Rice is a member of the St. Lawrence County Rock & Mineral Club, and has been collecting in the surrounding area for over 40 years. He showed us some of the minerals he had collected from nearby Pine Hill Rd., and then offered to give us a little tour. Here is Paul with a plaque the club presented him with for his excellent lapidary skills.

So we all piled in the car, and drove out to Paul’s Brown Tourmaline dig. We follwed as he quickly lead the way.

This location is actually Paul’s claim, but he allows people to collect from his tailing piles with prior permission.

Next it was off to a gravel quarry to collect fossils in round glacier washed stones.

Paul explained the geology of the area to us while he showed us around.

After taking us to the “Lost Fluorite” Location, he then directed us to where he likes to dig for quartz. He showed us his best find from the spot, so we were excited to check it out for ourselves. So we bid Paul good-bye, and thanked him for all his help.

The quartz location was marked by a pile of quartz gravel spilling down a hill at a pull off.

We walked up the hill, and followed the trail back untill we came to some outcroppings.

We were not dissapointed, and collected some pretty good pieces in a matter of minutes.

By this time we were tired and ready to head back to Scott’s house for diner. We drove through the town of Gouvernour on the way back.

I had seen the giant pack of LifeSavers in the town center before, but didn’t have time to stop. This time we made sure to.

Local resident Edward John Nobel was the owner and origanater of the LifeSaver, and the first flavor was peppermint.

Upon returning to the States, we immediately headed for Potsdam, New York. There we would be staying with our buddy Scott Wallace (Majestic Minerals) for a couple of days while filming our St. Lawrence County video.

Scott is an avid upstate New York collector, and had quite a few classic locations that wanted to show us. So we planned to check out a couple nearby localities after a good nights sleep.

The first spot that we planned to film was the Uvite deposit on Powers farm. This location is a classic St. Lawrence County collecting spot. Before heading to the collecting sights, we needed to first stop and pay the farmer $5 each to collect for the day.

Powers farm is open to the public, after talking to Mr. Powers of course, however Scott has his very own claim there. He has been working it by hand for a few years, and has pulled out quite a few nice pieces. After parking the car it was only a short walk back through the woods to area.

The trench he dug is right beside the brook, and is quite deep. As you can see from the pictures, he has moved quite a lot of material from the sight.

Here is are a few Uvites that were laying around the tailings piles.

There are also pseudomorphs & quartz too be found.

After walking to the public collecting spot, it was time move on to the Saranak Rd. Tremolite location. So we got in the car and headed down the road.

We walked back into the woods a little way untill we came to the digging location.

The tremolite here was of an excellant quality. We found many terminated single crystals, and really nice medium sized clusters. Back in the day, when this location was first discovered, these crystals were thought to be green tourmaline, but no… they turned out to be Tremolite instead. Sad for them, but happy for us, Justin loves asbestosform minerals!