Green Mountain Quarry, West Cornwall, Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
Green Mountain Quarry	Quarry (Inactive)
West Cornwall	Village
Cornwall	- not defined -
Litchfield County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

A mine has just been opened on the east side of the railroad, one-half mile from West Cornwall, for feldspar. The deposit appears to be abundant, and of good quality. Quartz and mica are abundant, but no other minerals are found to injure the quality of the product; these are easily rejected. The railroad has put in a side track for loading cars, and a tramway from the mine delivers the feldspar. Only surface work is required, as the vein is traced a long ways up the mountainside.

The same company, Mr. Boyce foreman, "Eureka Mining and Operating Co., Trenton, N. J.," are working at other places on the line of the Housatonic Railroad, but location gives this an advantage, and the mine promises to be a success.

Recently, as they were thawing out dynamite in their magazine, 500 pounds exploded, destroying the building and scattering things generally, but no injury to persons.

The Green Mountain mine is 0.5 mile south of West Cornwall village, in the town of Cornwall. From the village follow the dirt road leading south along the railroad tracks for 0.5 mile. The deposit is on the west slope of a steep bill, about 150 feet east of the railroad tracks.

The property is owned by Edward A. Schleuter, West Cornwall. The mine was last worked many years ago for feldspar and mica. The workings are an opencut about 150 feet long, 15 to 40 feet wide, and 5 to 35 feet deep, and several trenches. They were examined briefly by E. N. Cameron in November 1942.

The opencut follows an irregular tabular pegmatite 15 to 25 feet thick. At the east end of the cut (the head) the pegmatite strikes east and dips steeply south. Westward toward the entrance the strike of the body changes to N. 50° W. and the dip changes to steeply southwest. The walls of the pegmatite are uneven, and several small pegmatite offshoots extend into the wall rock. The main body seems to pinch out eastward within 50 feet of the opencut. The wall rock is gray granitic biotite gneiss whose foliation strikes N. 70° E. and dips 43° SE. at the east end of the quarry.

Mica occurs chiefly along the footwall of the pegmatite, intergrown with quartz and plagioclase in an irregular layer 1 to 3 feet thick. The books range from ½ to 4 inches broad. The mica is hard, rum muscovite, in part showing biotite and magnetite “stains.” All books seen were strongly ruled and cross fractured. Some would yield punch mica and small sheet, but most are of scrap quality.

Whether the mica zone extends beneath the debris on the floor of the cut is unknown. The quality of the books in sight is poor, and the content of sheet mica appears to be low.