[Rockhounds] Our summer trip

[Nathan Martin]

Brian,
The $100 book you saw advertised at amazon.com was Mineralogy of Maine
by Vandall King.  That is a wonderful detailed reference book
describing the minerals found in Maine localities (it comes in 2
volumes).  However, that is not the book you want if you are simply
looking for directions to specific localities.  The Maine Geological
survey link that Al Balmer sent you is what you really want.  As he
indicated you can find it at
http://maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/minerals/guide/guide.htm
As you go to each locality page in chapter 6 you can do a "save page
as" to save a copy on your computer.

Having said that many of the localities listed are no longer
accessible due to specimen mining operations and others require that
arrangements be made in advance.  For Oxford County localities I
recommend stopping at Perham's of West Paris to see their
"mini-museum" of Maine Minerals and to find out what mines are
currently accessible.  The Harvard and Tamminen quarries in Greenwood,
ME are usually open for collecting but they are owned by Perhams and
it is always good to check first.  If you come up with specific
localities of interest email me off list and I will be happy to tell
you what I know about their accessibility.

If you want to spend more time in Maine, check out the Poland Mining
Camp web page at
http://www.polandminingcamps.com/.
If you stay with them they can get you into many of the quarries that
have ongoing specimen mining operations and are not generally open to
collectors.

have a great trip!

Nate Martin
Lexington, MA



On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Al Balmer <albalmer at copper.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 11 May 2008 13:56:07 -0400, "J Bryan Kramer"
>  <codeburner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  >I'll wait until I get to Maine, Amazon only shows one used copy at $100...
>
>  That's Vandall King's (et al) book. I recommend it highly. When I
>  lived in Rochester, Van was an active member of the Mineral Section of
>  the Rochester Academy of Science (the people who do the annual
>  Rochester Mineralogical Symposium). But, you don't have to spend $100
>  - apparently the Maine Geological Survey has rights to the book and an
>  updated version is on line.
>  http://maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/minerals/guide/guide.htm
>
>
> >
>  >
>  >BK
>  >