Locality: Attributed to French Mine, Alstead, NH
Specimen Size: 13 cm specimen. Specimen interior almost all graftonite, (as visible on bottom sawn surface). Laminar, brown-pink graftonite is exposed on right side of specimen
Field Collected: Francis Maloney, Gilsum, NH. Gift from Dale Johnson.
Catalog No.:
Notes: Francis Maloney (d. 2002) was the founder of the Gilsum Rock Swap and former postmaster of Gilsum. Francis owned several mines in the Gilsum-Alstead area. In August, 2011, I (Tom Mortimer) was invited to Gilsum to assist the Gilsum Historical Society in the idendification of specimens from the Maloney collection donated by his widow. Unfortunately, none of the specimens were labeled with either species or locality, although certainly most had come from the mines of the Gilsum-Alstead area.
This specimen locality attribution was made by 1) similarity to Harvard Museum specimen #130841 -- see mindat.org photo, and 2) that Francis Maloney extensively collected in the Gilsum-Alstead area.
Worldwide, graftonite is an uncommon mineral. Melvin Hill, Springfield, New Hampshire is the type locality for graftonite.