General2009 Maine Mineral Symposium (Dancing with the Spars)
The Maine Mineral Symposium celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, on May 8-10. Approximately 275 participants from the Northeast and adjacent Canada enjoyed the program of speakers, exhibits, dealers, and field trips.
The State Museum exhibited the Maine Tourmaline Necklace, which was fashioned from Newry tourmalines found in the 1970’s and gold panned from Maine rivers.
New Brunswick geologist/prospector Dave Stevens checks out some Canadian minerals in Woody Thompson’s room. Dave comes out of the bush every year to attend the Symposium.
Dana Jewell (“The Human Excavator”) exhibited a case of self-collected New England minerals, including a huge apatite crystal from Palermo Mine (left-center).
Van King (left) and Woody Thompson (right) visiting with Jane and Frank Perham, who are well known for their many years of mining gems and mineral specimens from Maine pegmatites and documenting the area’s mining history.
Alfredo Petrov gave talks on Mindat and Bolivian minerals as well as being a dealer at the Symposium. Among many other things, we learned that sodalite beads from archeological sites were eventually traced to a deposit in the Bolivian mountains. Large blocks of the blue sodalite rock are now commercially quarried and carved into pricey items such a bathtub for one of the Spice Girls!
Jim Tovey presented this fine exhibit of beryl crystals and aquamarine gems that he produced from the Tripp Mine in Alstead, New Hampshire. Jim also was a dealer at the Symposium.
Among Gary Freeman’s many recent finds at Mount Mica was this enormous quartz crystal, which is so large that it was displayed on the floor of the exhibit room. The crystal shades from smoky to milky, with clusters of smoky and rose quartz crystals on the termination. A bizarre ear-shaped loop of pink chalcedony(?) is seen on the side of the specimen.
Jim Nizamoff’s talk on miarolitic cavity minerals of New Hampshire’s Conway Granite was accompanied by this exhibit of specimens from his collection and also from Don Dallaire’s collection.
Woody, wonderful report so far!
Van King signing a copy of his new book for George Rambo. The book describes the colorful mining history of Oxford County, Maine (titled “Maine Feldspar, Families, & Feuds”). It arrived from the printer in Hong Kong just in time to make its debut at the Symposium. Van is an annual speaker at the meeting and also does a lively job as auctioneer.
The silent auction, along with the Symposium anniversary cake that was served to everybody and stimulated bidding in the voice auction that followed. All proceeds from the auction are used to help fund the next Symposium and hold the registration fee to a minimum.
One of the field trips visited the Estes Quarry in West Baldwin, Maine, where a long list of rare minerals have been found in the pegmatite. Pickings were slim on this occasion, but I heard from Peter Cristofono that he and Suzanne Wall validated my "Second Law of Mineral Collecting”. This states that you often make a good find late in the day when you really have to leave within minutes! (The First Law is that you often find that great specimen soon after arrival, and then you dig the rest of the day in vain hoping for more.) Just prior to departure, Suzanne found the first known rhodochrosite from this locality, and Peter found the best secondary phosphates of the day - eosphorite, etc.
Does anybody have photos to post from the other trip, to the Fuller Mtn. beryl prospect on the Maine coast?Thanks to my wife Louise Thompson (Symposium registrar) who ran around with the camera and took all the people photos seen here! Many fine minerals changed hands in dealer rooms and hallways this year, including specimens brought by Ron Kendig from the collection of the late Neil Wintringham, who collected very actively in Maine and elsewhere during the mid 1900's. The market remains strong for the best Maine pegmatite minerals, including both old classics and freshly mined material.
See you next year in Augusta!
Woody Thompson
:)-D 
In response to Woody's request for Fuller Mountain Mine pictures, here's Scott and his son with that sizable Beryl crystal that we uncovered on Sunday. Look in the wall between the two of them. It was roughly 10". Lots of staining in the rock.An event of this type does not just spontaneously generate. As a member of the symposium committee, I would like to extend
a sincere thank you to the following people who worked hard on countless behind the scenes activities. A big thank you to: Ellery Borow, Katie Collins, Mary Fraser, Jim Greenlaw, Paul Hannemann, Pam Heikkinen, Nancy and Garrett Leavitt, Mike Robbins, Woody and Louise Thompson, Cliff and Linda Trebilcock, and Ray Woodman. A special thank you to all the mineral dealers and dedicated collectors who donate high quality items for our benefit auctions, year after year. Our registration fee does not come close to covering our operating costs and your support is what keeps us going. Also a big thank you to the speakers whose, wit, humor and knowledge keeps drawing a diverse group of symposium participants on a yearly basis. Thanks to one and all for making the 20th Maine Mineral Symposium a success in spite of the economy. Nice photo! Several people told me about this crystal embedded in the ledge. Were you able to extract it? Also great to see that some young collectors were on board. Another enthusiastic father-son team showed up at Estes Quarry after having already been to Fuller Mtn. Hi Woody - It was nice to see a picture of my dad with Van up there at the symposium. I sure have missed getting up to visit with all of the miners and collectors the past two years. I am hoping that 2010 will be a better year for me to travel and make it back to the symposium once again.
-Doug 
Thanks Woody for sharing about the Maine show. For those of us who are unable to criss cross the country to attend, it is nice to capture the essence of the show. 
Makes one want to seriously consider travelling across the continent some year to try and catch this, especially if one is a peg lover. Thanks for the pictorial reportage...nice to see Van again. Usually catch him down in Tucson these past few years, and despite meeting up with him this year, he never mentioned that he was getting a book published...COOOL Hi Linda and Ray - nice to hear from you! We hope you can visit Maine and do some collecting. Our Symposium is short in duration, but could be combined with some other trips in the area to justify your travel. If you want to have a serious go at the pegmatites, I highly recommend the Maine Pegmatite Workshop:
http://homepage.mac.com/rasprague/PegShop/index.html
The Workshop combines classes taught by pegmatite specialists with daily trips to the choicest localities, some of which are seldom open to the public. It's a really good time!
Cheers,
Woody My hats off to Louise for her superb photography! Will see if the black flies are out next year! Are Swedes allowed? Hi Peter,
Not only "allowed" but most welcome, and you might even want to visit Sweden, Maine while you're here (along with Paris, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Peru, Moscow, and all those other towns!). The sign below is in the heart of Maine's Oxford Hills pegmatite region ;)
Cheers,
Woody
Hi Woody
Thank you for the welcome. I also need to get to Rochester sometime.
Sweden, Maine has a lot better amethysts than the entire country of Sweden, although we have many localities.
Just got back from a great mine trip in Minas Gerais pegmatites but most have been closed the last few years sadly enough!
Peter
