Graftonite (type locality)

specimen number:
1052821

location:
Melvin Mt., Grafton Co., New Hampshire, USA

description:
From the type locality for the species, massive graftonite in matrix. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video and dates to the very early 20th century.

Grafton County, New Hampshire, is an important mineral-producing region celebrated for its complex granitic pegmatites, which belong to the Devonian-aged Littleton Formation and New Hampshire Plutonic Suite. Geologically, these highly fractionated pegmatite bodies intruded into metamorphic schists and gneisses, cooling slowly to form large crystals of feldspar, mica, beryl, and rare iron-manganese phosphate minerals. Commercial mining and quarrying in the county began in the early nineteenth century, notably at the Ruggles Mine in 1803 and later at the Palermo No. 1 Mine, primarily targeting mica for insulation and later feldspar, beryl, and lithium ores during peak operational periods through World War II and into the 1960s. It was within this unique geological setting that the mineral graftonite, an iron-manganese-calcium phosphate mineral, was discovered and first described in 1900 from a type locality on Melvin Mountain near the town of Grafton.

Grebel, Wendler and Company, also operating under the name Comptoir Mineralogique et Geologique Suisse, was a prominent commercial mineral dealership based in Geneva, Switzerland, during the early twentieth century. Operating from their premises on the Cours des Bastions, the firm specialized in retailing systematic mineral collections, geological specimens, and paleontological items to universities, public museums, and serious private collectors throughout Europe and North America.

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