Hewitt Gem Mine

Date: 7/9/2022 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Hewitt Gem Mine in Haddam, CT!!  New owners are agreeable to having Clubs visit!!  Productive pegmatite mine notable for Beryls, Tourmaline, Quartzes, Feldspars, Garnets, and numerous other associated minerals.  FEE DIG - $ 30 p/p standard, $ 40 p/p if you bring and use power equipment.  Generous Lunch is typically included free of charge! Exact times TBD.  SEE GROUNDHOG DAVE FOR DETAILS

 

Field Trip Report

Clubs in attend:  NoJMS, FM-NJ

Attendees:  Groundhog Dave, John Van Wagenen, Micki and John Reiss, Micah and Sidney Raab, Dan Ritter with wife, Kevin "Coop" Cooper and Tia Buttcher, Dawn Hill, Ryan "Klock Man" Klockner with Jess and Lu, Todd Pavlick, Jason Marchildon, Andrew Kreugel with Dad

We had an excellent day of collecting at the Hewitt Gem Mine.  Tony Apilla and his crew were very gracious hosts and guides for us for the day.  We were quickly shown the main cut and exposure, and the geology was impressive with various layers comprising the Pegmatite body.  An adjacent contact with a Xenolith body was easy to see, and not far from this region, some nice Beryls were found in the wall.  Tony and his crew carefully extracted a boulder with a quarter-sized end section of a blue Aqua beryl emerging; unfortunately there was not much length to it jutting below the boulder.  "The Beryl Whisperer" Micah Raab had the find of the day (aided by power equipment), a handsome split pair of bowling ball - sized boulders with 3 or 4 sizable beryls poking out in different directions.  One was yellowish, one was greenish-blue and one was mostly colorless.  Micah has since trimmed these down more and they display nicely.  Kevin "Coop" Cooper had a neat find early on, an octahedral crystal definitely in the Microlite Group of Rare Earths.  Micki Riess and Dawn Hill both found Chernakite, a pinkish Lepidolite -  like mineral.  Jason Marchildon found a few nice Beryls from working the wall, and others found assorted small Beryls.  Tiny orange, lustrous Spessartine Garnets were also pretty common finds for the day.  Definitely a place we will be visiting in the future.

Event URL: https://www.mindat.org/loc-23091.html