Up to the present time there has been very little mining for precious
or semi-precious stones in the United States, and then only at
irregular periods. It has been carried on during the past few years at
Paris, Maine; near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico; in Alexander County,
North Carolina, from 1881 until 1888; and on the Missouri River near
Helena, Montana, since the beginning of 1890. True beryls and garnets
have been frequently found as a by-product in the mining of mica,
especially in Virginia and North Carolina. Some gems, such as the
chlorastrolite, thomsonite, and agates of Lake Superior, are gathered
on beaches, where they have fallen from rock which has gradually
disintegrated by weathering and wave action.
_Diamond._--A very limited number of diamonds have been found in the
United States. They are met with in well-defined districts of
California, North Carolina, Georgia, and recently in Wisconsin, but up
to the present time the discoveries have been rare and purely
accidental.
_Sapphire._--Of the corundum gems (sapphire, ruby, and other colored
varieties), no sapphires of fine blue color and no rubies of fine red
color have been found. The only locality which has been at all
prolific is the placer ground between Ruby and Eldorado bars, on the
Missouri River, sixteen miles east of Helena, Montana. Here sapphires
are found in glacial auriferous gravels while sluicing for gold, and
until now have been considered only a by-product. Up to the present
time they have never been systematically mined. In 1889 one company
took the option on four thousand acres of the river banks, and several
smaller companies have since been formed with a view of mining for
these gems alone or in connection with gold. The colors of the gems
obtained, although beautiful and interesting, are not the standard
blue or red shades generally demanded by the public.
At Corundum Hill, Macon County, North Carolina, about one hundred gems
have been found during the last twenty years, some of good blue color
and some of good red color, but none exceeding $100 in value, and none
within the past ten years.
_Beryl Gems._--Of the beryl gems (emerald, aquamarine, and yellow
beryl) the emerald has been mined to some extent at Stony Point in
Alexander County, North Carolina, and has also been obtained at two
other places in the county. Nearly everything found has come from the
Emerald and Hiddenite mines, where during the past decade emeralds
have been mined and cut into gems to the value of $1,000, and also
sold as mineralogical specimens to the value of $3,000; lithia
emerald, or hiddenite, to be cut into gems, $8,500, and for
mineralogical specimens, $1,500; rutile, cut and sold as gems, $150,
and as specimens, $50; and beryl, cut and sold as gems, $50.
At an altitude of 14,000 feet, on Mount Antero, Colorado, during the
last three years, material has been found which has afforded $1,000
worth of cut beryls. At Stoneham, Maine, about $1,500 worth of fine
aquamarine has been found, which was cut into gems.
At New Milford, Connecticut, a property was extensively worked from
October, 1885, to May, 1886, for mica and beryl. The beryls were
yellow, green, blue, and white in color, the former being sold under
the name of "golden beryl." No work has been done at the mine since
then. In 1886 and 1887 there were about four thousand stones cut and
sold for some $15,000, the cutting of which cost about $3,000.
_Turquoise._--This mineral, which was worked by the Aztecs before the
advent of the Spaniards, and since then by the Pueblo Indians, and
largely used by them for ornament and as an article of exchange, is
now systematically mined near Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Its color is
blue, and its hardness is fully equal to that of the Persian, or
slightly greater, owing to impurities, but it lacks the softness of
color belonging to the Persian turquoise.
From time immemorial this material has been rudely mined by the
Indians. Their method is to pour cold water on the rocks after
previously heating them by fires built against them. This process
generally deteriorates the color of the stone to some extent, tending
to change it to a green. The Indians barter turquoise with the Navajo,
Apache, Zuni, San Felipe, and other New Mexican tribes for their
baskets, blankets, silver ornaments, and ponies.
_Garnet and Olivine (Peridot)._--The finest garnets and nearly all the
peridots found in the United States are obtained in the Navajo Nation,
in the northwestern part of New Mexico and the northeastern part of
Arizona, where they are collected from ant hills and scorpion nests by
Indians and by the soldiers stationed at adjacent forts. Generally
these gems are traded for stores to the Indians at Gallup, Fort
Defiance, Fort Wingate, etc., who in turn send them to large cities in
the East in parcels weighing from half an ounce to thirty or forty
pounds each. These garnets, which are locally known as Arizona and New
Mexico rubies, are the finest in the world, rivaling those from the
Cape of Good Hope. Fine gems weighing from two to three carats each
and upward when cut are not uncommon. The peridots found associated
with garnets are generally four or five times as large, and from their
pitted and irregular appearance have been called "Job's tears." They
can be cut into gems weighing three to four carats each, but do not
approach those from the Levant either in size or color.
_Gold Quartz._--Since the discovery of gold in California, compact
gold quartz has been extensively used in the manufacture of jewelry,
at one time to the amount of $100,000 per annum. At present, however,
the demand has so much decreased that only from five to ten thousand
dollars' worth is annually used for this purpose.
In addition to the minerals used for cabinet specimens, etc., there is
a great demand for making clocks, inkstands, and other objects.
_Quartz._--During the year 1887 about half a ton of rock crystal, in
pieces weighing from a few pounds up to one hundred pounds each, was
found in decomposing granite in Chestnut Hill township, Ashe County,
North Carolina. One mass of twenty and one-half pounds was absolutely
pellucid, and more or less of the material was used for art purposes.
This lot of crystal was valued at $1,000.
In Arkansas, especially in Garland and Montgomery Counties, rock
crystals are found lining cavities of variable size, and in one
instance thirty tons of crystals were found in a single cavity. These
crystals are mined by the farmers in their spare time and sold in the
streets of Hot Springs, their value amounting to some $10,000
annually. Several thousand dollars' worth are cut from quartz into
charms and faceted stones, although ten times that amount of paste or
imitation diamonds are sold as Arkansas crystals.
Rose quartz is found in the granitic veins of Oxford County, Maine,
and in 1887, 1888, and 1889 probably $500 worth of this material was
procured and worked into small spheres, dishes, charms, and other
ornamental objects.
The well-known agatized and jasperized wood of Arizona is so much
richer in color than that obtained from any other known locality that,
since the problem of cutting and polishing the large sections used for
table tops and other ornamental purposes was solved, fully $50,000
worth of the rough material has been gathered and over $100,000 worth
of it has been cut and polished. This wood, which was a very prominent
feature at the Paris Exposition, promises to become one of our richest
ornamental materials.
Chlorastrolite in pebbles is principally found on the inside and
outside shores of Rock Harbor, a harbor about eight miles in length on
the east end of Isle Royale, Lake Superior, where they occur from the
size of a pin head to, rarely, the size of a pigeon's egg. When larger
than a pea they frequently are very poor in form or are hollow in
fact, and unfit for cutting into gems. They are collected in a
desultory manner, and are sold by jewelers of Duluth, Petoskey, and
other cities, principally to visitors. The annual sale ranges from
$200 to $1,000.
Thomsonite in pebbles occurs with the chlorastrolite at Isle Royal,
but finer stones are found on the beach at Grand Marais, Cook County,
Minnesota. Like the chlorastrolites, they result from the weathering
of the amygdaloid rock, in which they occur as small nodules, and in
the same manner are sold by jewelers in the cities bordering on Lake
Superior to the extent of $200 to $1,000 worth annually.