Spessartine

specimen number:
8311247

location:
Little Three Mine, Ramona, San Diego Co., California, USA

description:

A loose glassy gem orange spessartine from this famous locality. In super condition all around, a very fine thumbnail.

The Little Three Mine, located near Ramona in San Diego County, California, is a world-famous pegmatite locality renowned for its exceptional gem minerals and garnets. Geologically, the deposit consists of a series of thin, sub-parallel granitic pegmatite dikes intruded into tonalite country rock during the Cretaceous Period. The mine is most celebrated for its spessartine garnets, which occur in high-quality pockets within the core zones of the dikes, often associated with smoky quartz, schorl tourmaline, and cleavelandite. These spessartine crystals are prized for their intense orange to reddish-orange color, sharp dodecahedral habits, and remarkable transparency, with some of the finest specimens ever found in North America coming from the "New Spaulding" and "Hercules" pockets. Historically, the claim was first located in 1903 by H.W. Switzer and was worked intermittently for several decades. It saw its most significant period of modern specimen production under the ownership of Louis Spaulding Jr., who operated the mine from the mid-1950s until the early 1990s. Today, the Little Three Mine is considered a classic American locality, and its spessartine specimens remain highly sought after by collectors for their brilliant luster and iconic "Fanta" orange hue.

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