Russell Garnet Mine, Russell, Hampden County, Massachusetts, USAi

Regional Level Types
Russell Garnet Mine	Mine
Russell	Town
Hampden County	County
Massachusetts	State
USA	Country

A famous historic site where large, sharp, almandine crystals were mined from a pegmatite "pod" in the late-1800s. The operation mined out nearly all of the pegmatite, leaving little to be seen today. The dumps were used to fill a swale in the owner's back yard, the fill then covered and grass planted. There is nothing left but the small open cut of the mine and a little bit of quartz and feldspar that didn't get mined out. It is now only an historical curiosity.

Kunz (1885) reported: "At Russell, Massachusetts, a vein of garnet, very dark in color, and called there black garnet (not melanite), was opened during the last two years, and many fine crystals have been taken out, partly by Mr. Daniel Clark, of Tyringham, Massachusetts. These have been sold as specimens only, or exchanged for minerals, and were valued at fully $1,000 in all."

According to Emerson (1895): "One mile south of Thorp's, now Pomeroy's, the first house on the river road coming from Westfield, perfect forms 202, abundant and very large black almandine garnets from a granite vein. This locality has been largely worked by Mr. Daniel Clark and by a Mr. Johnson, of Tyringham, and specimens from this locality, most ingeniously fabricated, have been offered for sale as coming from Tyringham. Many hundred dollars' worth were obtained from the locality, which is now exhausted. They have been also cited as coming from Westfield."

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