New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

The theme of the 2008 Tucson mineral show and the FM-TGMS-MSA mineral symposium there was "Classic U.S. Mineral Localities." In a paper I presented at that symposium, "What is the 'most important' mineral locality in the U.S.?," I surveyed and compared prominent U.S. localities and attempted to answer my own question. As a follow-up to that presentation, here I will try to review New Mexico's most famous localities in the same way and, in the process, see if there is an obvious answer to which of the state's "classic" localities is the most renowned for mineral specimens.

To try to assess the most outstanding localities in a quantitative or "scientific" way, I had explored several methods of surveying the popular and scientific literature. These included searching for the number of times localities were mentioned in the Mineralogical Record's cumulative index; and in GeoRef, the American Geological Institute's comprehensive geoscience literature database; and the number of "hits" for locality names online on www.google.com.

There are, of course, a variety of criteria that one could consider as to what constitutes the "most important" locality: the quality of specimens that have been produced from the locality, the number of different species known to occur, the number of type species described, the overall contribution of studies of the locality to the scientific literature, or the general accessibility and quantity of collectible specimens produced from the locality. In comparing localities, one also faces the problem of localities that differ in geographic extent—a single mine or field site, versus a group of nearby mines or district, versus broadly distributed "localities" that encompass an entire town, county, province, region, mountain range, or geologic formation. There are also localities famed as outstanding sources of one single mineral, versus localities known for a wide variety of uncommon species, but perhaps occurring only as small, sparse, micro, or indifferently crystallized specimens.

For the Tucson talk comparing U.S. localities, I decided to base my "conclusion" on a survey of the number of times specimens from each locality were pictured in a total of 10 popular books depicting "superb" mineral specimens—recognizing, of course, that this criterion would emphasize only localities that had produced the most exquisite, showy, and valuable specimens. The 10 books were:

• Desautels, P. E., 1968, The Mineral Kingdom.
• Bancroft, P., 1973, The World's Finest Minerals and Crystals.
• Bancroft, P., 1984, Gem & Crystal Treasures.
• Barlow, F. J., Jones, R. W., and LaBerge, G. L., 1996, The F. John Barlow Mineral Collection.
• Wilson, W. E., 2000, The Joseph A. Freilich Collection.
• Wilson, W. E., Bartsch, J. A., and Mauthner, M., 2004, Masterpieces of the Mineral World, Treasures from the     Houston   Museum of Natural Science.
• Smale, S., 2006, The Smale Collection, Beauty in Natural Crystals.
• Thompson, W. A., 2007, Ikons, Classic and Contemporary Masterpieces of • Mineralogy.
• Trinchillo, D., 2008, The Marc P. Weill Collection of Fine Minerals.
• Staebler, G., and Wilson, W., eds., 2008, American Mineral Treasures.

Illustrations from the 10 books amounted to a total of 400+ photographs from some 108 nationwide localities. (Having had access at the time to the table of contents but not a full copy of American Mineral Treasures, I was not able to tabulate the photos in it, so I simply tallied the localities represented therein without counting photographs.) I have to report, with regret, that in this survey, although a few New Mexico specimens were pictured in these source books, none of the New Mexico localities made it into the top nationwide localities, or even into the "top 25." Those New Mexico localities from which specimens did manage to eke out an appearance in any of the above 10 books were:

• Kelly mine (two photos, as I counted them at the time; in fact, there were 11, because 10 photos actually appeared in American Mineral Treasures—all of Kelly smithsonite),
• Chino mine (two photos, both of crystallized native copper), and
• Grants uranium district (one photo, uranophane)

For those interested, the result of my survey of the U.S. localities was that the localities appearing most frequently in illustrations in the 10 named books were the California gold-producing region and the Keweenaw copper district of Michigan; recognizing, of course, that both of these are regions, not a single mine, with the California districts encompassing parts of some six counties. California gold specimens appeared in photographs 37 times and were the only locality or district pictured in every one of the 10 books; photographs of Keweenaw copper and associated minerals appeared 45 times, in nine out of the 10 books. The individual locality (still not strictly a single mine, but basically one deposit) ranking the highest was Bisbee, Arizona, with 17 photos appearing in nine out of 10 books. "Runners-up" were the Pala pegmatite district of California (24 photos in seven out of 10 books), the Sweet Home mine (13 photos in eight books), the Pikes Peak pegmatite district (10 photos in eight books), and the Red Cloud mine, Arizona (10 photos in eight books).

Focusing the discussion back to New Mexico, localities that might rank as classic and which come to the fore as candidates for a "best" New Mexico locality could be:

• Kelly mine, Magdalena district, Socorro County
• Blanchard mine, Hansonburg district, Socorro County
• Stephenson-Bennett mine, Organ district, Dona Ana County
• Harding mine, near Dixon, Taos County
• Chino mine, Santa Rita, Grant County

Some New Mexico "honorable mentions" might also include

• Groundhog mine, Central district, Grant County
• San Pedro mine, Santa Fe County
• Grants uranium district, Cibola and McKinley Counties
• Tyrone mine, Burro Mountains district, Grant County
• Judith Lynn claim, Burro Mountains district, Grant County
• Mina Tiro Estrella, Capitan district, Lincoln County
• Smoky Bear "claim", White Mountain Wilderness, Lincoln County
• Point of Rocks Mesa, Colfax County
• Staurolite occurrences, Picuris Range, Taos County

As well, some of the other mines included in districts named above may have a claim to outstanding specimen production in their own right, for example, the Mex-Tex and Royal Flush mines in the Hansonburg district, and the Waldo-Graphic and Juanita mines in the Magdalena district. Attendees at this symposium may have their own good suggestions for further additions to this list.