Middle of July, American Geode had the opportunity to leave New York City and visit a famous rockhound site in Massachusetts. Specifically in Chester, Massachusetts, American Geode spent a day looking for an old emery mine, known as the Old Mine.
The Chester, Massachusetts is known for at least 6 mines in the 19th century and early 20th century. The primary mineral was the industrial abrasive emery. It took a moment to realize this is the reason why those nail files are called Emery Boards. It was a genuine “Ah-Ha” moment as for the longest time I had never given second thought to why an emery board was called an emery board. If you has asked me years ago, I would have said that the inventor’s surname was Emery.
So some friends and I went to the park in Chester, Massachusetts that marks the entrance to the location of the old emery mines of Chester.
While we did not find any emery, we saw the remnants and ruins of a mining operation. The area is along a river, which makes sense, and the hike and trail, and fresh air are very refreshing. We would consider this an easy to moderate rockhound location as tools are required, but there are a lot of loose rocks and overflow from the old mining operations to examine and crack. As always, contact American Geode directly through the American Geode homepage to learn more about rockhounding sites in Massachusetts, and other rockhounding sites in the United States.
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