Nathan Hall and Case Quarries, CT Trip

Date: 10/19/2018 12:00 AM to 10/20/2018 12:00 AM

Location: Nathan Hall Quarry, East Hampton, CT and Case Quarry, Portland, CT, ,

Attendees: Groundhog Dave, Mike “Pie Man” Dunton, Mike and Lynn Sian Wright, Dan and Linda Sackerman, Ron “ChiselBuster” Schulz, Jess and Laura Jacobson, Alaine “Lainie” Mack, Dave “Dude” Miller, Paul “Mr. Reveille” Radziewicz, “Super” Nicole Rios, Linda Lovstad, Frank Stanski, Mike “Mr Maui” Machette, John Walsh from MA. We had an excellent weekend of collecting at two historic quarries in central Connecticut, Nathan Hall Quarry and Case Quarry. On Friday 19th, six members of Friends NJ attempted to find the Nathan Hall Quarry, not really knowing the actual site. We ultimately settled on a spot that we reasoned could not be too far from where the quarry was, being that it had a large amount of works / pits and piles. We noticed a lot of large mica and massive large quartz of varying colors and cloudiness. Mike “Pie Man” Dunton found a nice Beryl, about 3 inches, running along the outside of a flattened rock “slab”. It was dull yellowish in color, camouflaged by the rest of the host rock. On Sat Oct. 20, 16 members of NoJMS and FM-NJ visited the Case Quarry site in Portland. Groundhog Dave flubbed the time he had put on everyone’s flyer and arrived late with the others that hotel-ed in nearby Meriden. So the Hog was batting 1000 already. ? Fortunately John Walsh of several MA Clubs, a resident expert on Case Quarry, arrived early with the other folks, and guided them to some of the productive spots of the quarry. The quarried area was on the fringe of a large woodland area, extending a good way into the woods. Digging and hammering were the order of the day, and any pegmatite material was fair game to possibly contain Beryl crystals. Jess and Laura Jacobson both found nice greenish Beryl crystals, a notable one from Laura that was split in half and with both halves recovered. Jess found a neat thin two or so incher in a small pegmatite rock. Laura started to find other small Beryls after that point, mostly in pegmatite rocks on the surface. Linda L. wound up finding a beautiful two inch or so thick, greenish beryl crystal in a rock jutting out of the surface, which also revealed in another fragment, a large square inch or so, deep red Garnet. That was definitely the Garnet find of the day, and the Beryl find also, tied with Laura’s “split” Beryl find. Paul R. later found a small < 1 inch beryl in pegmatite rock, and others found small blebs and pieces of green to dull green crystals. Some members then went with John Walsh to the Nathan Hall Quarry, which we now are confident in saying IS the correct spot. (We were actually right nearby the day before). We hammered there for a few hours. Nobody turned up any beryls, but we did notice a local collector unearth a nice one inch semi-thick beryl, dull greenish, in one of the pits we were in the day before. More of the familiar mica and quartz, was recognized again, and inspected. On John’s advice, Mike Dunton and Frank S. walked to a nearby ridge and looked for Staurolite crystals that John said abound the surface of the ridge. Both members found numerous tourmaline – like long black rectangular crystals we were DOUBTFUL of being Staurolite since Staurolite usually has an cross habit. These were just 1 crystal each, no crosses. However they were nice sharp crystals and both members took several pieces. Mike found an unbelievable bowling ball sized boulder with the crystals covering an entire surface.Attendees: Groundhog Dave, Mike “Pie Man” Dunton, Mike and Lynn Sian Wright, Dan and Linda Sackerman, Ron “ChiselBuster” Schulz, Jess and Laura Jacobson, Alaine “Lainie” Mack, Dave “Dude” Miller, Paul “Mr. Reveille” Radziewicz, “Super” Nicole Rios, Linda Lovstad, Frank Stanski, Mike “Mr Maui” Machette, John Walsh from MA. We had an excellent weekend of collecting at two historic quarries in central Connecticut, Nathan Hall Quarry and Case Quarry. On Friday 19th, six members of Friends NJ attempted to find the Nathan Hall Quarry, not really knowing the actual site. We ultimately settled on a spot that we reasoned could not be too far from where the quarry was, being that it had a large amount of works / pits and piles. We noticed a lot of large mica and massive large quartz of varying colors and cloudiness. Mike “Pie Man” Dunton found a nice Beryl, about 3 inches, running along the outside of a flattened rock “slab”. It was dull yellowish in color, camouflaged by the rest of the host rock. On Sat Oct. 20, 16 members of NoJMS and FM-NJ visited the Case Quarry site in Portland. Groundhog Dave flubbed the time he had put on everyone’s flyer and arrived late with the others that hotel-ed in nearby Meriden. So the Hog was batting 1000 already. ? Fortunately John Walsh of several MA Clubs, a resident expert on Case Quarry, arrived early with the other folks, and guided them to some of the productive spots of the quarry. The quarried area was on the fringe of a large woodland area, extending a good way into the woods. Digging and hammering were the order of the day, and any pegmatite material was fair game to possibly contain Beryl crystals. Jess and Laura Jacobson both found nice greenish Beryl crystals, a notable one from Laura that was split in half and with both halves recovered. Jess found a neat thin two or so incher in a small pegmatite rock. Laura started to find other small Beryls after that point, mostly in pegmatite rocks on the surface. Linda L. wound up finding a beautiful two inch or so thick, greenish beryl crystal in a rock jutting out of the surface, which also revealed in another fragment, a large square inch or so, deep red Garnet. That was definitely the Garnet find of the day, and the Beryl find also, tied with Laura’s “split” Beryl find. Paul R. later found a small < 1 inch beryl in pegmatite rock, and others found small blebs and pieces of green to dull green crystals. Some members then went with John Walsh to the Nathan Hall Quarry, which we now are confident in saying IS the correct spot. (We were actually right nearby the day before). We hammered there for a few hours. Nobody turned up any beryls, but we did notice a local collector unearth a nice one inch semi-thick beryl, dull greenish, in one of the pits we were in the day before. More of the familiar mica and quartz, was recognized again, and inspected. On John’s advice, Mike Dunton and Frank S. walked to a nearby ridge and looked for Staurolite crystals that John said abound the surface of the ridge. Both members found numerous tourmaline – like long black rectangular crystals we were DOUBTFUL of being Staurolite since Staurolite usually has an cross habit. These were just 1 crystal each, no crosses. However they were nice sharp crystals and both members took several pieces. Mike found an unbelievable bowling ball sized boulder with the crystals covering an entire surface.