Dinner and discussion at Poland Mining Camps
Dinner and discussion at Poland Mining Camps

One of the most enjoyable research trips I’ve done – this one for Rock & Gem magazine – was a few days deep in the Maine woods at a camp for prospectors – yep, rockhounds, those of us who love to collect minerals – called Poland Mining Camps.  Every evening the mineral mavens would gather to look over each others finds from the day’s explorations, which ranged from rummaging through closed quarries to blasting apart pegmatites in search of gems.

Poland Maine quarry rockhounding
One of the quarries we dug through in search of gems