Levyne

specimen number:
2072299

location:
Beech Creek Quarry, Grant Co., Oregon, USA

description:
Choice example for the species with white platy crystals filling small open pockets within matrix. Classic locality for the species.

The Beech Creek Quarry, situated near the town of Mount Vernon in Grant County, Oregon, is a notable mineralogical site located within the tertiary basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Geologically, the quarry exposes vesicular basalt where cooling-related cavities, or vugs, were later filled by zeolites through the circulation of low-temperature hydrothermal fluids. The locality is particularly recognized for the rare zeolite mineral levyne-Ca, which typically occurs as thin, hexagonal, tabular crystals that are transparent to white and often exhibit characteristic twinning. Historically, the site has functioned as a small-scale quarrying operation used by local agencies for road surfacing and maintenance materials, with periodic activity spanning the mid-20th century to the present. While its primary industrial purpose was rock aggregate, the quarry gained significant attention from mineralogists and collectors starting in the 1960s and 1970s for the high quality of its micromount specimens. As of 2026, the Beech Creek Quarry remains a classic reference locality for Oregon zeolites, valued for the distinct crystal morphology and relative abundance of levyne found within its volcanic host rock.

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