Club Schedule of Events

News and Pictures (last updated April 13, 2008)

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 WEATHER REMINDER

 IF THE SCHOOL IS CLOSED due to weather there will be no meeting that night, but it will be held the NEXT DAY.
 

Also see Mineral Shows page 

and EFTA web site for other field trips!!

April 5, 2008 - Another successful Clark Hill dig.  Many beryls turned up at Nathan Hall Quarry, ranging from blue-green to yellow and up to 3 inches long, plus a probable 2-inch garnet (it was still partly covered by matrix - but looked promising) and a 1-inch columbite (also in matrix).  Smaller columbites were in evidence as was abundant massive fluorapatite and a well-shaped mica after schorl pseudomorph. The usual subhedral muscovites embedded in the quartz core turned up, one with 5 nice crystals.  An old drill bit and a piece of pottery were among the artifacts found that may help date the age of operations at this not well documented quarry.  Digging and probing the soil at the upper part of the State Forest Quarry Number 1 did not yield much, sadly, but one crude 2-inch bluish beryl was dug up.

December 1, 2007 - Seventeen participants braved the snow squall and windy cold weather at the Clark Hill Quarries.  Actually it was fairly nice out much of the day.  Many beryls of different colors (one 3.5 inches long, another yellow ones sprinkled with tiny green torbernites), columbite, fluorapatite, muscovite crystals, and muscovite after schorl pseudomorphs turned up at Nathan Hall.  Despite some searching at the pocket zone of the State Forest Quarry No.1, only a beryl fragment was found there.

News flash!! Contrary to recent rumor, the Stoddard Mine IS NOT CLOSING!!!!!  Here are some details from a recent collector close to the action:

I visited with Jim (mine access owner) who has been in contact recently with Ian (Stoddard Mine owner). There are some issues.... However it does not appear to me that the mine is going to be closed. First of all; There is a continued dispute with the logging company who was up on the hill last winter. This has nothing to do with the mine. Second a certain club president from New York pitched a fit because he was not allowed to drive his car up to the mine. The seeds of these rumors may stem from this incident. Third there was one woman who complained about the cars parking. Maybe she was having a bad day. Cars have been parking there for years. Please have your car as far off the road as possible to appease this woman. If any issues arise further Jim will contact me about them. As a side note they where alarmed that people would NOT visit the mine because they heard the mine was closed thru the mineral world.

September 22-23, 2007 - Field Trip to Maine

Thirteen members attended this very successful trip to the land of "Life the Way it Should Be".  Under the care of Poland Mining Camp, we were guided to the Bennet Quarry (origin of the Rose of Maine beryl) and neighboring Orchard Pit.  Everyone came away with many beryls, especially aquamarines, and fluorescent apatite.  Sunday was a beautiful clear day and we hunted at Mt. Apatite.  Highlights here were golden beryl from the Keith Quarry and garnets and gahnite from the Hole in the Ground.  Pix here - Bennett, Orchard, Mt. Apatite

July 28, 2007 - Case Quarries

About 15 collectors were on hand to scour the 4 prospects for beryls and other pegmatitic wonders.  Many, mostly small beryls were found at the #1 and #3 prospects.  Several things were found right on the surface, such as a 3/4-inch columbite and a nice 1.25-inch trapezohedral almandine-spessartine.  Fred sniffed out a tiny uraninite crystal and some rare radioactive minerals. There'll be details on that later.

June 30, 2007 - Field Trip to Stoddard Fluorite mine, NH.

Another wonderful collecting site in the SW New Hampshire country.  Fluorite was in great abundance at all sites, as well as needle quartz, often coating blocks of quartz vein breccia.  The fluorite is mostly pale green and octahedral, with rarer violet in comlex cubes similar to those from Thomaston dam.  A late fluorite crystallization is clear and in a rare tetrahexahedral habit, with curved edges and little cubic faces at the apex of the flat tetrahedra.  These are small crystals only a few millimeters across and look like frozen bubbles to the unaided eye.

June 2, 2007 - Tilcon New Britain /Plainville Quarry Open House

Tilcon invited members of the local mineral clubs to set up displays of minerals and their uses at their open house they give somewhere each year to invited guests.  Ed, Paul, Rich and Fritz attended and had a great time showing off trap rock and other minerals and helping Tilcon explain the essential place rock plays in modern life.  It was a hot day, but we were in a large tent with plenty of drinks and food and nice golf shirts courtesy of our hosts. We met many folks from Tilcon and we learned as much from them about quarrying as they did from us about rocks and minerals. As a result, they plan to invite us back. Pix here.

March 17, 2007 - President's Report on the Show

President Kupisz thanks those involved. A few pictures can be found here.

March 14, 2007 - The Passing of Dick Schooner

It is with sadness that I report (a bit late) on the passing of great Connecticut mineral collector Dick Schooner.  While I never met him personally, I have read and been greatly aided by his many writings on the subject and am privileged to own many of the specimens he collected.  His contributions to the state of knowledge on our state's mineralogy was huge, some of which appears on this site's Quarries page.  Below is an obituary prepared by friends and family.

Richard Albert Schooner, 81, of Old Skinner St. East Hampton, died February 14, 2007 in Middletown. Born March 8, 1925 in Bowling Green, Ohio the son of the late Albert L. Schooner and Rose Mogensen (Schooner) Beranek he had lived in East Hampton for 70 years. His formal education was through the East Hampton school system but basically he was a self taught man. Richard "Dick" to his many friends, was an avid collector of minerals starting at age 12 under the guidance of the late Louis W. Little of East Hampton. His quest led him to many quarries in Central CT and New England. He freely disseminated mineral information to other collectors and made hundreds of field trips. His expansive knowledge of minerals of central Connecticut led him to publish several manuscripts on the subject, one of which can be found in the East Hampton Library. He worked as curate of minerals at Harvard University and his collection was on display at Wesleyan University. His proudest moment came when a former "student" of his, Professor Paul Moore of the University of Chicago, proposed and was later approved by The American Mineralogy Association, that a new mineral first found in Palermo #1 Mine in N. Groton, New Hampshire and later found in Hagenenof, Germany, be named "Schoonerite" in his honor. Richard was a lover of hiking, nature, birds, flowers, sunsets and a cat named "Baby". His love of classical music and poetry led him to write hundreds of poems and sonnets and to compose symphonies of his own, many of which are yet to be published. He leaves his sister, Lorraine (Schooner) (Bidwell) Sampson, a niece Marcia (Bidwell) Addy and her husband Wayne and family, Anthony Labbadia Jr., Meghan Addy and granddaughter Tessa Labbadia, a niece Allison (Bidwell) Fuller and her husband Keith, nephew Benjamin H. Bidwell III, and nephew Brenden M. Bidwell and his wife Kelly and their children Amber Barron and Khira Bidwell. Funeral services will be held Saturday, February 17, at 3 p.m. in the Spencer Funeral Home 112 Main St. East Hampton with the Rev. Thomas Kennedy officiating. Burial will be in the family plot in Lakeview cemetery in the spring.