Date of Hike: 9/8/17
Crystal Mine Trail: 4.0 miles (600' elevation gained)
Trip Report:
- Early Friday morning, Whitney, James "Snickers" (A.T. 2014), and myself checked out a recently built trail in the town of Randolph that leads to a historical mine that was used during WWII. "The crystal mine, located on the Randolph Community Forest, was worked by the General Electric Corporation during World War II. Alan Lowe is quoted as saying that GE was hauling ox carts full of crystals out of it for radios as part of the war effort." - David Wilcox (about the mine / trail design / trail opening).
- The hike is an easy one, mixing in a constructed trail, old logging roads, and existing woods roads. It's a pretty hike, that would look even better in a few weeks when foliage comes rolling through. There is also a huge, and I mean huge White Pine tree near the beginning of the trail, kudos for the trail builders for having the trail skirt right by this old beauty.
- Of course the highlight of the hike is the mining area, there are three small mines, which were holding water from the recent rain so we did not venture into them. Scattered everywhere around the mine site were quartz and crystal attached to them. None of us had tools so we just collected a few small pieces we could find. It was a lot of fun looking around and finding some pretty cool looking quartz/crystals.
Crystal Mine Trail: 4.0 miles (600' elevation gained)
Trip Report:
- Early Friday morning, Whitney, James "Snickers" (A.T. 2014), and myself checked out a recently built trail in the town of Randolph that leads to a historical mine that was used during WWII. "The crystal mine, located on the Randolph Community Forest, was worked by the General Electric Corporation during World War II. Alan Lowe is quoted as saying that GE was hauling ox carts full of crystals out of it for radios as part of the war effort." - David Wilcox (about the mine / trail design / trail opening).
- The hike is an easy one, mixing in a constructed trail, old logging roads, and existing woods roads. It's a pretty hike, that would look even better in a few weeks when foliage comes rolling through. There is also a huge, and I mean huge White Pine tree near the beginning of the trail, kudos for the trail builders for having the trail skirt right by this old beauty.
- Of course the highlight of the hike is the mining area, there are three small mines, which were holding water from the recent rain so we did not venture into them. Scattered everywhere around the mine site were quartz and crystal attached to them. None of us had tools so we just collected a few small pieces we could find. It was a lot of fun looking around and finding some pretty cool looking quartz/crystals.
Parking for the new trail is located at the old Farrar homestead along Route 2
The trail passes by this huge old pine!
The hike in is easy and pretty
Reaching the mine site, quartz galore!
The three tiny opening to the mines
Informational bulletin on collecting at the site and trail signs spotted along the way
Another view of the homestead
Farrar homestead
Quartz that I collected, some have small crystals on them, might be hard to see in the photo.
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