Locality: Pond Hill (Pearl Lake Locale), Lisbon, NH
Specimen Size: Larger crystal is 1.7 cm
Field Collected: Ron Lippard
Catalog No.: 1282
Notes:
Locality: Gilsum-Alstead pegmatite district, NH
Specimen Size: A 6 inch specimen, (BIG!)
Field Collected: Francis Maloney
Catalog No.:
Notes: A Gilsum Historical Society Specimen.
Francis Maloney was the founder of the Gilsum Rock Swap and the postmaster of Gilsum, NH for many years. He reportedly owned several mines in the Gilsum-Alstead area and had a modest sized collection of specimens from area pegmatite localities.
Locality: Gilsum-Alstead pegmatite district, NH
Specimen Size: A 3.5 inch specimen.
Field Collected: Francis Maloney
Catalog No.:
Notes: A Gilsum Historical Society Specimen.
Locality: Murphy Prospect, Springfield, NH
Specimen Size: 3.2 cm crystal.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.: 1160
Notes: During a revisit to the "Murphy Prospect" in Sept., 2011, none of these garnets could be found. Recent information has indicated that there are two "Murphy Prospects" above the Globe Mine in Springfield.
Locality: Murphy Prospect, Springfield, NH
Specimen Size: 2 cm crystal.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.: 1193
Notes:
Locality: Joe Hill area, Springfield, NH
Specimen Size: 3 cm specimen with broken garnet section.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer - April 2005
Catalog No.: 1702
Notes: Certainly, a poor garnet specimen, but the locality is of interest to NH collectors. Phillip Morrill, in his Mines and Mineral Localities of New Hampshire booklet states: "the Joe Hill farm may be where all collectors got their spessartites."
The earliest report of a Springfield, NH spessartine occurrence is in Jackson's 1844 Geology and Mineralogy of the State of New Hampshire, pg. 183. Jackson states: "A most abundant supply of perfect crystals of this mineral [spessartine] may be obtained in a few hours, by breaking up the mica slate rocks of Springfield, NH. They occur in such profusion that the mica serves only to connect them together, so that on breaking the rock with the hands they fall out and are found to be perfect crystals. They are of perfect uniform sizes and about as large as a filbert. Rarely two crystals are united together. They possess a good color, but none of them appeared sufficiently rich for jewelry, and I have not had them cut so as to try their effect. To the mineralogist and crystalographer, they are interesting specimens."
Many NH field collectors, including myself, have searched the "Joe Hill farm" area looking for the spessartine occurrence. None I am aware of have found it. Nor have I seen a spessartine sample perported to be from this locality. This garnet specimen, collected from a pegmatite ledge in the Joe Hill farm area, was analyzed (Joe Hill garnet analysis) and determined have a modest manganese content, but the Mn content is less than the Fe content, so it belongs to the almandine species.
End member formulae are: Almandine Fe2+3Al2[SiO4]3 Spessartine Mn2+3Al2[SiO4]3
Locality: Gingras Farm Locality, Deering, NH
Specimen Size: 5.5 cm specimen.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.: 1181
Notes:
Locality: Un-named pegmatite, S. Uncanoonuc Mtn., Goffstown, NH
Specimen Size: 2.4 cm specimen.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.: 900
Notes:
Locality: Swain Brook pegmatite, Wentworth, NH
Specimen Size: 1.5 cm (complete) almandine crystal on feldspar matrix. A smaller garnet is attached to the backside.
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.: 782
Notes: This trapezohedral form is somewhat less common than the dodecahedral form.
The pale color of this crystal hinted at a possibility it might be the spessartine species. An EDS analysis showed it to be a manganese rich almandine garnet. The Mn content is significant, but insufficient to classify this as spessartine.