Calcite

specimen number:
2063567

location:
France Stone Co. Quarry, Monroe Co., Michigan, USA

description:
An attractive grouping of lustrous mostly gemmy scalenohedral calcite crystals without matrix. Said to have been collected in the 1940s by Donald Gabriel, whose collection eventually went to the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum, this has nice color and is in good condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Located in Monroe County, Michigan, the France Stone Company Quarry (Monroe Quarry) exposes Middle Devonian carbonate strata, primarily belonging to the Lucas Dolomite of the Detroit River Group. Mining operations began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to produce crushed stone, aggregate, and agricultural lime from these fossiliferous sedimentary rock layers. Epigenetic hydrothermal fluids circulating through fractures, cavities, and fossil molds deposited a rich suite of secondary minerals within the vuggy dolomite host rock. The quarry gained widespread fame among mineral collectors for producing magnificent specimens of lustrous, yellow-to-amber celestine crystals, as well as clear calcite, golden fluorite, and brassy pyrite. Although the quarry was an active industrial site with strictly controlled access, permission-based field trips and work by local collectors over the decades made it one of the premier classical mineral localities in Michigan.

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