Page 3 - SparHawk Maine Tourmaline

SparHawk Mint Green Teal
Jeff balancing a SparHawk crystal on the windowsill at Cross Jewelers
Maine Tourmaline Find
The Silver Dollar Pocket
Historic Tourmaline Strike June 8 & 9, 2013
Saturday night. June 8.
Standing in line to buy a theater ticket. Phone rings. Voice says “this
is Jeff, we hit a pocket this afternoon, thought you might like to come up.” I said “What time?” He said “8:30.”
Sunday morning at the mine. The Silver Dollar Pocket.
Day breaks gray, over cast 64 degrees, humid. Later, spots of blue sky appear. Some sun with shifting shade.
The Silver Dollar Pocket is unlike anything I have ever seen at a gem mine in Maine. It was a cave-like opening in the cliff wall. Dark. Mys- terious. In the back, large smokey quartz crystals. In the front, green tour- maline crystals left in place, untouched as found. The overlying white clay had just been washed away. Crystals still wet, gleaming in the morn- ing light.
Jeff has carried a 1924 silver dollar since he won it in a poker game 33 years ago. He placed it for size reference. I took a video and still pho- tographs. After that the day just kept getting better.
A small crowd gathered, a scientist, a gem cutter, a jeweler and five of the state’s most important gem miners, drifted in and out throughout the day. Some stayed all day. Sounds: jack hammer separating rock, mine pump, water washing rock and rubble clean. Everyone looking for color. Talk: speculation. Talk: certainty. Talk: crystals held to the sky. Talk: won- der. Sounds: dogs barking, dogs running with sticks. Young guys working, old guys watching.
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