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Cut gemstones, those that had been shaped by a lapidary (one who polishes or engraves stones) were captioned with their cut and carat.įelch bounced light-footed through the halls, expounding on supply chains, brine barges and battery technology. elbaite), its origin (Dunton Quarry, Newry, Oxford Co.) and the name of the collector (D.M. Small white tags named the type of mineral (e.g.

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We meandered slowly through the exhibits, pulling open drawers full of neatly labeled gemstones. “He’s finding very dark blue right now but looking for it to lighten up,” Mary offered by way of explanation of her husband’s absence. She led me around to the back door, which Felch held open the two exchanged pleasantries and a light hug. Mary, wearing a bright pink baseball cap, jeans, hiking shoes and a baguette-cut green-black tourmaline ring (she mined the gemstone herself), met me at the museum, which was closed, just before 10 a.m.

After nearly two years of reporting on the discovery and its aftermath, including months of legislative hearings on whether the Freemans would ever be able to dig it up, the couple had finally agreed (after much gentle prompting) to bring me to see the deposit, which lies nearly smack in the middle of 7,000 acres of old logging land they own in Newry.īut first I wanted to see the museum, where the Freemans have donated a number of their more impressive crystals over the years, including a spectacular cobalt-colored obelisk of elbaite tourmaline, which sits in a display case devoted entirely to their discoveries. This, of course, is why I was in Bethel in the first place. Mary and Gary Freeman were looking for tourmaline when they stumbled on a deposit that may eclipse the Big Find in the history books: a formation of lithium-bearing spodumene crystals potentially valued at $1.5 billion for its use in mobile phones and batteries. The cavern yielded some of the world’s finest pink and watermelon specimens of the boron-based crystal, whose color ranges from black to pink to electric blue, depending on the amount of iron, copper or manganese that’s present.Ī spodumene crystal from Plumbago North. Until recently, the most famous deposit in these mountains (“the Big Find”) was discovered in 1972, when gem hunters uncovered more than a ton of the rainbow gemstone tourmaline in a massive pocket near the top of Plumbago Mountain.

The specimens at the mineral museum have names that recall the occult, ones that wouldn’t be out of place in the pages of a Tolkein or Harry Potter novel: bloodstone, schorlite, smoky quartz, morganite beryl, topaz, amblygonite. The mountains of western Maine, remnants of the chain of Northern Appalachians that formed and then eroded over hundreds of millions of years, are rich in minerals. For Bethel, a sleepy ski town of 2,500, the presence of such a museum - which one geologist described to me as the “Smithsonian” of rocks - feels unexpected, if pleasantly so. Outside it is humid and overcast, but inside the museum is cool, dry and dimly lit, the low light accentuating the spotlights on the crystals in cases lining the walls. RELATED STORY: A remarkable discovery in Maine’s wilderness sparks a debate over the risks and rewards of mining

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