Welcome to the Boston Mineral Club!

BMC Field Collecting in the 21st Century
By Field Trip Coordinator, Nathan Martin
As the Boston Mineral Club passes the 75 year mark. I am pleased to report that we remain a club committed to offering our members numerous opportunities to collect minerals in the field. We are fortunate to live in New England where there are still many different localities for us to visit that offer the potential to find a wide variety of collectable mineral species. There are also other opportunities to take trips to visit museums, mineral symposiums and mineral shows that are regularly scheduled throughout the year.
The 2011 Fieldtrip Schedule
As an example, during the 2011 collecting season, the Boston Mineral Club scheduled the following field trips to 16 different localities plus a museum trip and the Maine Symposium:
March:       Peabody Museum at Yale University (a tour, not a collecting trip)
April:         Green’s Farm Garnet Locality, Southbury, CT
Simpson Q., South Glastonbury, CT
May:          Maine Mineral Symposium Fieldtrips
Attleboro, MA fossil locality
June:          Aggregate Industries Quarry in Wrentham, MA
Palermo #1 Mine, N. Groton, NH
July:           Moat Mountain (near N. Conway, NH)
Lord Hill, Stoneham, ME
Manhan River Lead Mine, Loudville, MA
August:     Portsmouth, RI fossil locality
Slocum Quarry, East Hampton, CT
Sept.:         Heath Quarry, Casco, ME
Howes Cave Quarry, Howes Cave, NY
Schoharie Quarry, Schoharie, NY
Greenport Quarry, Hudson NY
October:    Keating Quarry, Acushnet, MA
Walworth Quarry, Walworth, NY
Other Fieldtrip Localities
Other localities we have visited frequently since 2000 include:

V.A.G. Quarry, Lowell/Eden Mills, VT (now closed)
Sanford, ME vesuvianite locality (now closed)
Chickering Mine, Walpole, NH
Wright Mine, Chester, MA
Aggregate Industries Q., Ashland, MA (temporarily closed)
Tamminen Quarry, Greenwood, ME
Harvard Quarry, Greenwood, ME
Betts Manganese Mine, Plainfield, MA
Clark Hill Quarries, East Hampton, CT
CCC Quarries, Haddam, CT
Baldface Mountain, NH
Kyanite Locality, Blanford, MA
Stoddard Fluorite Mine, Westmoreland, NH (now closed)
Ossipee Mountains, NH (now closed)

Special Fieldtrip Opportunities
During the past 7 years, the club has also sponsored several special opportunities for collecting at localities outside of New England. These trips have included:
2005: Graves Mountain, Lincolnton, GA
Jacksons Crossroads, Wilkes County, GA
2006:   Fluorite Mines and mineral museums near Marion, KY and Cave-in-Rock, IL
2007:   Fluorite Mines and mineral museums near Marion, KY and Cave-in-Rock, IL
2008:   Eureka Fluorite Mine plus fluorescent mineral collecting at the Columbia Mine, both near Marion, KY
2009:   Nova Scotia Zeolite Collecting at 4 localities near Parrsboro, NS
2010:   Red Cloud Mine, Trigo Mountains, Arizona
With the emphasis on the 75th Anniversary celebration this year we did not schedule a special fieldtrip, but several localities are under consideration for 2012. Field Collecting is alive and well at the Boston Mineral Club!