Eau Claire beryl occurrence (MacLaren), Calvin Township, Nipissing District, Ontario, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Eau Claire beryl occurrence (MacLaren)	Occurrence
Calvin Township	Township
Nipissing District	District
Ontario	Province
Canada	Country

In granite pegmatite.

Beryl crystals occur in pegmatite composed of pink microcline, white albite cleavlandite), quartz, and colourless to greenish-yellow muscovite. Accessory minerals include black tourmaline crystals to 20cm long, red garnet, and brown pyrochlore. Yellow beryl crystals 2 to 7cm in diameter were recovered from this deposit when it was first opened (Sabina).

04/09/2019, (Per. Comm.) Lloyd Van Duzen.
I had the privilege of spending the afternoon with property owner Fred Maxwell and his family. I also had a personal guided tour by Fred and his two sister's Marilin Foster and Judy Sparks. During this time we spent together, Fred, Judy and Marilin reflected from their childhoods about the site and told stories related to it.

Fred told me that the property has been occupied and owned by the Maxwell family since about 1878. His grandfather settled here, made a home and life for his family. Fred told me that through out his life there were many visits to the property by prospectors, government officials and geologists to see the old workings. He mentioned that one time a man came and walked the property with a geiger counter and although no radio activity was found at the workings, a rock outcrop up behind his house set the geiger counter off. He believed this was around war time.

Fred claimed the pits and trenches existed for as long he could remember as a kid but couldn't tell me who made them. Marilin went on to mention a man named Mr. Basher who was a local prospector type, man who traveled the area, hammering on rocks and who had knowledge of the area mines and carried a bag of gold with him. Marilin and Judy joked with Fred about always wanting to find that bag of gold that Mr. Basher carried with him and when he died in the bush a couple concessions over on a old bush trail, they claimed no one ever found the bag of gold but they went on to ponder a few places it could be.

Judy and Fred told me sometime around the war, rock drills were brought to the property and the only one who used them was their dad since he was the only one who knew how to operate them. Judy continued to say there was blasting at the site back then and when the pits were dug out their mother used to warn "us kids" not to go playing around there but we did anyways.

Fred claims at one point they shipped mica from the pits and while riding on his four wheeler he showed me a forest clearing what he called "the staging area" for the mica, which was located along the trail we were following to the furthest, deepest pit.

Fred told me when he was a young man he worked in the purdy mica mine and mentioned a large sheet of mica being taken to a museum in Ottawa. He told me that the mine found on Suzanne's Road was called Suzanne's mine way back when. He was referring to the "other Purdey Mine" or the "lost Purdy Mine".
He called another mica mine a short ways south of his property as the "Libby Mine".

I believe all the reference descriptions are accurate, but I question one large, deep, pit Fred showed me which was on the same strike as the other pits and trenches but outside the 200 foot area in the description. This one was about 300 feet beyond the described workings.

The site has 6 excavated pits and a few small trenches and dump piles, typical of manual laborious excavation and hand cobbing.

I have seen most of the minerals documented with the exception of garnet and beryl.

The site is on private property and Fred Maxwell declares that there is strictly no trespassing.

Special thanks to Fred Maxwell, Zella Graff, Judy Sparks and Marilin Foster.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References