Maine Gemstone Mining

Maine Tourmaline: Three excellent tourmalines from the Dunton Quarry in Oxford County, Maine. Photo by Thuss Photography, used with permission of the Maine State Museum.

Birthplace of U.S. Gemstone Mining

Maine has a special place in the gemstone history of the United States. The first commercial gemstone mine was started in Maine, and the state was also the first place where gemstones were a byproduct of mining an industrial mineral. These stories and more are told below.

Table of Contents

America's First Gemstone Mine Gems as a Byproduct World-Class Tourmaline Gem-Quality Quartz Other Maine Gems

America's First Gemstone Mine

The first commercial gemstone mine in the United States was discovered by accident near the town of Paris, Maine, on a late autumn day in October of 1821. Two young men, Elijah Hamlin and Ezekiel Holmes, were hiking when Hamlin spotted a green flash of color in the soil beneath the roots of a fallen tree. He went to the tree and picked a small, bright green, transparent prism-shaped crystal from the soil.

The men examined the crystal and realized that something special had been found. They began searching for more crystals but were hampered by darkness. They decided to return the next day to continue their search, but the first snowfall of winter made searching impossible. They did not know what they had found but decided to return in the spring to resume their search.

As soon as the winter's snow had melted away, Hamlin and Holmes returned to the fallen tree and began searching. That day they found a number of beautiful crystals and fragments of crystals at the fallen tree and at numerous nearby locations. They sent some of the crystals to Benjamin Silliman, a professor at Yale University, who identified them as tourmaline.

Later that year, Hamlin's younger brothers, Cyrus and Hannibal (who later served as Vice President to Abraham Lincoln), opened a pocket of beautiful gem-quality green and red tourmaline crystals in a nearby rock ledge. Some of the crystals were over two inches in length and one inch in diameter.

Unfortunately, in the early 1800s the market for rough gemstones and mineral specimens in the United States was undeveloped, and the Hamlins sold many of their crystals for small amounts of money.

Gems as a Byproduct

By the late 1800s, rough gem materials were regularly being purchased by dealers in Boston and New York. At the same time, mica and feldspar were being mined from dozens of pegmatites in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Oxford, and Sagadahoc Counties. Gem-quality tourmaline and other gem minerals were often discovered while mining, and gemstones became a byproduct of the mica and feldspar industries.

The hill where Hamlin and Holmes made their tourmaline discovery was known as "Mount Mica" because large amounts of mica were found there. Mining for tourmaline occurred intermittently at Mount Mica through the 1800s and 1900s, as miners began to understand the pegmatite rocks and the cavities within them that contained beautiful crystals.

A recent mining episode at Mount Mica began in 2003 when Coromoto Minerals decided to mine the entire pegmatite by following it underground to discover all of the pockets. Since then they have found hundreds of pockets containing gem- and specimen-quality tourmalines, along with many other minerals. A detailed history of mining at Mount Mica can be found at the Creaser Jewelers website.

World-Class Tourmaline

The three faceted tourmalines in the photo at the top of this page were cut from rough mined at the Dunton Quarry, located in Oxford County.

Many world-class tourmaline crystal specimens have been mined in Maine, and many of the best faceted tourmalines have been cut from rough produced from Maine mines and quarries. The Maine legislature recognized tourmaline as an important product of the state and named it the "official state gemstone."

Schorl, a black variety of tourmaline, is the most common tourmaline found in Maine. The gem-quality material is green, blue, pink, and watermelon (green and pink) elbaite.

Maine Amethyst: Amethyst is commonly found in the granite pegmatites of Maine. These lilac crystals were found at the Saltman Prospect in Oxford County.

Gem-Quality Quartz

Beautiful varieties of gem-quality quartz have been found in Maine. Amethyst is the most important and is frequently found in granite pegmatite at many locations. Facet-quality citrine has been found at Emmons Quarry, Hatch Ledge, and Buckfield. Smoky quartz and rose quartz have been found in faceting quality at many locations. Star rose quartz has been produced from the Whispering Pines Quarry.

Other Maine Gems

In addition to tourmaline and quartz, the pegmatite deposits of Maine have produced aquamarine, morganite, chrysoberyl, lepidolite, spodumene, and topaz. Garnet, kyanite, andalusite, sodalite, and staurolite have been produced from the metamorphic rocks of Maine.