Sometime near noon Jeff opens a second gem pocket. A small opening in the rock, just enough room for a hand to slip in. This pocket is filled with water, a puddle pocket. A tray appears lined with a white towel with a blue stripe. Big green crystals are pulled from the pocket and laid out. Large white buckets are brought over to hold the small crystals.
Voices talk fast, talk over each other, a jumble of words. Two minutes of mine talk: “let me see that” “where did it go” “this piece probably goes to it” “when I pulled the first one out, a bunch of stuff fell” “ these two definitely go together” “it just doesn’t end” “let’s flush the pocket out” “but I can still feel something down in there” Hose comes out, end of hose buried in pocket. “are you pushing down?” “no just a light touch” “push it a little” “if a crystal breaks, it’s gonna break anyway.” The opening is narrow. Hand squeezes in. Hand full of green crystals comes out. Five men take turns for forty-five minutes. Fists full of crystals, one after another come to light. Trays and buckets fill.
I sat at the edge of this new pocket watching four guys taking turns reaching in and pulling handfuls of green crystals one after another. I made the comment “I’ve always imagined this was what tourmaline mining was like” and they all laughed, you can hear their comments on our sixteen minute Ice Cream Sundae video. They made it clear this was not what their’s or anyone’s experience of gem mining was like… and that this day and this pocket were exceptional.
A while later, I took a turn at the pocket and what I experienced surprised me. The best way to describe it was as I explained to someone several days later that it was like reaching into a huge half-melted ice cream sundae made with vanilla ice cream. Following my turn, this is what I wrote. “The opening is small, just barely big enough for a hand to fit. The edges of the opening are sharp, lined with small tourmaline crystals, lepidolite and cleavelandite . The pocket is filled with gray chalky colored water. Its temperature is cool, comfortable. Reaching down and in half way to the elbow under water, I can feel the talc-like smooth white clay. I can feel the crystals all shapes and sizes embedded helter-skelter in the slippery white clay. I can feel the long smooth angularity of the blade like sides of crystals. I can feel the flat terminations and pointy terminations and long and short crystals. Moving my hand around I can feel the clay dissolve and crystals drop into my hand. Pulling my hand to the surface, water and clay spill away and there in first light are green tourmaline,some with rose colored tips.” Going back to the ice cream sundae analogy. The consistency of the white clay material was like half melted vanilla ice cream. Liquid on top, softening at the bottom. The density of this thick soup was such that when one swirled the hand and wrist around, crystals would float up in the soupy liquid and literally drop into the hand. I’ve had dreams of finding gems. This was better.
Some of the material in the pocket were little pieces of lavender lepidolite and cleavelandite and cookite the size of diced walnuts and larger. I asked Jeff what he thought he might call this pocket. He said the Red Tip Pocket because some of the green crystals had red pointed tips. To carry the Ice Cream Sundae analogy to conclusion, early June up country is when the first wild baby strawberries show up in the fields with little tips of red among the green leaves. I will remember this gem pocket as the Ice Cream Sundae Garnished with Strawberries Pocket or Ice Cream Sundae Pocket for short. While this is not the scientific explanation of the geologist or mineralogist, it’s the poetic explanation of what the jeweler saw and experienced. I will never forget what it was like and I don’t think the other four men who were there will ever forget what happened that day.
The video is not at all professional but gives a really good idea of the gems found in this historic discovery. June 8th and 9th were a continuation of the SparHawk Mint Green Teal Gem find at the Havey Mine in Poland Maine. We are pleased to report SparHawk Mint Green Teal Jewelry will continue to be available this year and next in our Portland Maine Store.
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