The Lime Crest
and Franklin (or
"Farber") quarries of Sussex County were host to a surprisingly
large number of mineral species.

Those tiny black specks near the center of the photo are collectors.
This area later became flooded with water; more recently it may have been drained.
The
minerals of Lime Crest are mostly underwater now. The "official
line" has it that the quarry was bought out deliberately by a
multinational with the goal of shutting it down (to eliminate
competition, I guess). I find that a bit hard to believe, because
it can't be cheaper to import bulk stone than it is to quarry it
locally. Fuel costs may be lower, but that's never
reliable. There is a whole back-story involving a couple of
people
who wanted to get the quarry shut down because of the dust, noise,
etc. This certainly played a role in the quarry's demise.
There
are numerous minerals
that occur in the impure marbles of Franklin, Ogdensburg, Sparta,
Hamburg,
McAfee, etc... there are still minerals I haven't added to the
list. Lime Crest was by far the biggest and best marble quarry in
the region, but sadly it's gone (or not?... see below.) The good
news is that the
uppermost levels (which sit essentially even with the landscape) still
have quite a bit of mineralized rock. While the quarry was
flooded, there were still collecting trips to the dry upper
levels. I wish I'd gone on some of these.
Here's
an enouraging update: According to Mindat, the quarry was
apparently drained in 2013 and is operating again. As for
the collecting status, I do not know.
Finally, there are
still other windows into the Franklin marble; if we include the
Amity-Warwick area of New York, there are even more sites yet.
All of them have similar mineralization, though certain minerals (e.g.,
warwickite) appear to be more localized. Also-- just my
informal observation here-- Lime Crest seemed to have mineralization
that didn't appear so much in the ones farther away from the
Franklin-Sterling Hill complex.
What follows is a
listing of some minerals that occur in these quarries. I'veI
divided the list in two, just because I didn't want pages that seemed
to scroll on forever.
Click on a link below:
Quarry minerals A-L
Quarry minerals M-Z
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