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Justin and I attended the 2007 East Coast Gem & Mineral Show in Springfield Mass. This is one of the most important east coast mineral shows, and everyone who is anyone is present. Going to “The Springfield Show” gives us an oppurtunity to mingle with mineral collectors and dealers from this side of the country. Justin and I attended on Friday and Saturday, please read his show report on The-Vug, if you haven’t allready. This is mine.

In booth #1 was Wright’s Rock Shop. Chris Wright is a mineral show staple, and has loads of awesome minerals (and stories!).

Wayne and Dona Leicht (Kristalle) allways go that extra mile to give their booth a touch of class.

Jeff Fast (JBF Minerals) shows of an aquamarine, feldspar & garnet cluster.

Here Justin is talking with John Betts (John Betts Fine Minerals) about potential collecting locations in the New England region. John is an advid field collector, and has the directions to many localities on his website.

Lehigh Minerals came all the way from Utah.

Look at this crazy huge tourmaline and quartz specimen at that Leonard Himes had in his booth.

Here Jeremy Zolan (Mindat Regular), shows Leonard & Justin some stilbites that he had recently collected.

Jasun and Mandy McAvoy (Mineralman999 on ebay) were busy wheeling and dealing.

I really liked the new chalcedony stalagtites that Superb Minerals had for sale.

Jeff Scovil (Scovil Photography) sporting his patented eyebrow raise. Watch out ladies!

Scott Werschky (Miner’s Lunchbox) busy at work. It’s no wonder, with specimens like this one.

Our biddies Michael Wachtel and Caleb Barnas of NexGem LLC had their hands full helping customers all day, however Michael still had a chance to pose with me while Caleb took a picture.

Rob Lavinsky (The Arkenstone) allways has too many outstanding specimens.

Justin and I were happy to see our friend Scott Wallace (Majestic Minerals). He was working in the Mountain Minerals booth. We had loads of fun collecting with him when we were filming in up state New York.

This copper in The Sunnywood Collection’s booth was awesome.

Stay tuned for the rest of my 2007 Springfield Show pictures tomorrow!
Justin’s Show Report

Before leaving, Tom told us about a stauralite and garnet location in Lisbon, New Hampshire, beside Pearl Lake. Justin had directions from an old publication, but the area had changed quite a lot over the years, so the roads weren’t exactly what we expected. After a little bit of back-tracking we finaly found the location, across the road from a pull off.

We were shocked to see huge plates of stauralite and garnets in mica jutting out of the dirt, and loose smaller pieces scattered everwhere.

Justin wasted no time, and immediately set to removing a nice large plate.

After loading the car up, we drove just a little further into nowhere to collect pyrite crystals in shale from a road cut.

We collected specimens from the ground and the wall.

Then we crossed the street to collect in the shale beside the stream that paralels the road.

Justin made sure to wrap his best one up so that it would be secure.

Our last day of filming for the “Pegmatites of Maine” was set to be another action packed day. Tom (Tom Klinepeter, starkhillgem), Justin and I were planning on visiting 3 locations; The Bumpus Mine, Songo Pond Mine, and the Peru Garnet collecting locality.

The Bumpus Mine is known for outstanding Beryl crystals, the largest of which is displayed in the New York Museum of Natural History.

Maine Mineralogy Expeditions offers visitors tours of the mine tunnels and a chance to collect from some nearby tailing piles. They give tours Wednesdays, and invited us to come film. First everyone meets at the Bethel Outdoor Adventure & Camp Ground before caravaning over to the actual mine site.

Before entering the mine site, guides give a very thorough presentation on geology and mining before handing out hard hats and flashlights.

One man had a propane powered lantern, which I thought was extremely interesting.

The actual site is pretty overgrown, on the way back to the tunnels.

The area was quite a moist, humid enviroment. There was even a nice waterfall at the opening of the 1st tunnel.

After which, we all were led to the 2nd tunnel. Tom said that he had never actually been to that tunnel either, so it was new for all of us. We walked back through the trails to a marshy area, and the opening to the tunnel.

Once again, we filed inside.

Look at this worthless piece of schorl!

The entire tour and collecting package takes 4 hours, but we only stayed for 2. Not only did we have all the foootage we needed, we had plans to meet Jan Brownstein (207-824-3898) over at the Songo Pond Mine. We caught up with him at the parking area, and hitched a ride up to the mine in the back of his truck.

Jan has a table of sample specimens set up for visitors to look at. We looked at the specimens as he told us about the mine and what could be found there. Songo Pond Mine is a highly mineralized area. Collectors commonly find Beryl, Quartz, Feldspar, Garnet, Schorl, Mica, and Apatite, along with several others that are less common.

After chatting we headed down to the pit and tailing piles to film.

However I was very distracted by the frogs

and the primative benches.

However our 3rd location was in Peru, (Maine) so we needed to head out before calling it a day.

Tom had a publication with directions to a place to collect garnets back in the woods. It didn’t look like anyone had been back the trails in a while, except for maybe snowmobilers in the winter.

We walked down the overgrown trails and into the woods.

The whole area was on a slope that was covered in trees and moss.

You can either collect from the what is scattered on the ground or by trying to work garnets out fo the veins.

However the matrix is hard, and the garnets often shatter.

I saw this nice garnet in the wall, and thought I would never remove it without shattering it.

But much to my surprise it was already loose, and came right out using only my fingers. This was my best find of the day.

On the way back home we saw a Paul Bunyan (often refered to as a Muffler Man), and stopped to take a picture. We have a fondness for them, and even lived up the street from one exactly like this in Tucson, AZ.