[Rockhounds] Barton Garnet Mines

[Jim Small]

Kreigh -
         Great news; I think you will really enjoy the Barton Mines. 
If you are into the history of people in mineralogy and lapidary ask 
around about John Cornwall, a WWII veteran who lived on the main drag 
between North Creek and the Barton Mines - a one-armed facetor of 
particular renown. He was totally connected to the miners, and if it 
came out of Barton, he knew about it, including a lot of otherwise 
unknown garnet material from there - facet-quality rhodolite and star 
material for example. There are many other collecting opportunities 
in the central Adirondacks. Check out the former mining town of 
Tahawus; interesting in itself, but especially interesting because to 
drive to it (the location is on a deadend road) you must drive next 
to the Opalescent River, which gets its name from the prevalence of 
labradorite in the anorthosite bedrock. In fact, there are several 
places near your proposed camping area where gemmy labradorite are to 
be had. Almost any road improvement north from Speculator (for 
example) yields labradorite exposures. A sad story makes the rounds 
of dump truck loads of gemmy material being used as fill following a 
road widening project in the early 90s... Anyway, lots of stuff to be 
found, including turn of the century (19th to 20th) mica mines. The 
central to northern Adirondacks formerly had many narrow gauge 
railways for mines and mining communities which no longer exist. 
Maybe someone on the list is connected to the State Education Museum 
in Albany, and can provide you with some better assistance than my 
dated information. I think that Ralph Bristol's widow is still 
opening his shop up Saranac way occasionally; again check with other 
folks whose knowledge is more current.

KOR,

Jim Small
Small Wonders Lapidary
formerly of Schenectady, then Trumansburg, NY

>Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:11:13 -0500
>From: Kreigh Tomaszewski <Kreigh at Tomaszewski.net>
>Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Barton Garnet Mines
>To: everbeek at ptd.net,   "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock
>         and gem collectors"     <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
>Message-ID: <70DF2D86-B2CB-11DD-8094-0005022E6413 at Tomaszewski.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>Thanks Earl!
>
>I'm negotiating with my siblings for a family reunion camping trip next
>summer and the mine is reasonably near the midpoint between us this
>year. They know I won't come if I can't collect something interesting
>nearby; most of them join me when I do go collecting. I thought the
>mine was interesting when I researched the area, but you convinced me.
>Expect to find me at the Brown Tract Pond Campground in Raquette Lake,
>NY in mid summer this coming year -- dates yet to be decided (my oldest
>sister and I are twisting arms on the location and expect to win). If
>amy of you on the list are interested in joining us please let me know
>and I'll let you know the dates once we reach agreement.
>
>Kreigh