David G. Bailey

Reconsidering Paleoarchaic Mobility in the Central Great Basin

Abstract Analyzing technological patterns and source provenance of stone tools, Jones, Beck, Jones, and Hughes (2003) argue that Paleoarchuic groups of the central Great Basin moved within an extensive home range, perhaps reaching 400 km in its longest dimension. The Eastern Conveyance Zone, as they refer to this territory, was aligned with the predominantly north-south trending mountains and valleys of the province. To evaluate this model of mobility, artifacts were collected from the southern part of the Eastern Conveyance Zone for geochemical characterizations. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of 183 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic artifacts identified 12 known rock sources, all from the southern and central sections of the zone. No northern sources are represented among artifacts studied. Revisions of the Eastern Conveyance Zone model are considered in light of these results.

Pyrites Mica Mine (Kelly Farm), Town of Canton, St. Lawrence County, New York

Dr. Steven C. Chamberlain, a collector specializing in the minerals of New York State, is coordinator of the Center for Mineralogy at the New York State Museum. Donald M. Carlin Jr. is a mineral collector who specializes in field exploration and collecting. Michael R. Walter is an active field collector and mineral dealer specializing in the minerals of upstate New York and Canada. Dr. David G. Bailey is a professor of geosciences at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and a research associate at the New York State Museum. MICHAEL R. WALTER PO Box 137 2982 State Route 11B Nicholville, New York 12965 mwalter9@twcny.rr.com T Pyrites Mica mine on the James Kelly farm near Pyrites (pronounced peye-reye-teez.), New York, has been visited in the past century by economic geologists and most serious collectors interested in the minerals of northern New York, but it is largely unknown outside this specialist group. The shiny black scapolite crystals in a matrix of orange calcite are distinctive, possibly unique, but the other minerals are more typical of the significant mica occurrences farther north in Ontario and Quebec. Although the Kelly family has been gracious in allowing collecting for more than a century, widespread interest in this locality for mineral collecting has been lacking. Our recent renewed collecting and study provided the motivation for this article.

The Rose Road Localities, Town of Pitcairn, St. Lawrence County, New York: Part 1—History

Crystals of lustrous green diopside, clove-brown titanite, tan wollastonite, bright blue fluorapatite, and white albite from Pitcairn, New York, are widely represented in major mineral collections worldwide. More recently, a second locality was discovered nearby that is producing sharp crystals of scapolite; translucent, purple diopside crystals; transparent, amber-colored phlogopite; and a host of accessory minerals. Both of these sites are open to collectors as fee localities and continue to produce excellent specimens. There is little in the way of published information on this important East Coast locality. This and succeeding articles will provide a detailed history of collecting at the localities, their geology and origin, a comprehensive description of mineral species found at each, and a description of fluorescent minerals, twins, and pseudomorphs found at each. The Wollastonite Skarn (WSK) and the Purple Diopside Mound (PDM) are located in the Town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County, New York, south of Rose Road and west of NY Route 3 at GPS 44°12 2.3 N, 75°13 59.7 W and 44°12 5.3 N, 75°14 2.7 W, respectively (figs. 1 and 2). Despite the common assumption that the name of the town, and the nearby village of Pitcairn, might be named for Pitcairn Island, this is not the case. Pitcairn Island was discovered in 1767 and named after a fifteen-year-old midshipman, Robert Pitcairn,

New Danburite Locality Discovered in the Town of Macomb, St. Lawrence County, New York

As an article on the classic danburite locality near Russell, New York, was going to press (Chamberlain, Lupulescu, Bailey 2015), another danburite occurrence was discovered farther to the west, in the Town of Macomb. This locality has similar mineralogy but a very different geological origin than the Russell occurrence. The purpose of this brief article is to report this second occurrence of danburite in St. Lawrence County, New York. ANDREW SUTHERLAND 146 McKinley Court Massena, New York 13662 ajsminerals@hotmail.com

Minerals of the Scott Farm Pegmatite near Fine, St. Lawrence County, New York

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Steven C. Chamberlain of specimens from his collection Dr. Steven C. Chamberlain, a collector specializing in the minerals of New York State, is the coordinator of the Center for Mineralogy at the New York State Museum. Dr. Marian Lupulescu is curator of geology at the New York State Museum. Dr. David G. Bailey is an associate professor of geoscience in the geosciences department at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and a research associate at the New York State Museum. Minerals of the Scott Farm Pegmatite

Minerals of The Silurian Lockport Group Central and Western New York State

classic and influential works: Lewis Beck’s (1842) Mineralogy of New York, James Hall’s (1843) Geology of New York, and James Dana’s (1848) Manual of Mineralogy. Hall (1839) was the first to refer to the thick sequence of carbonate rocks exposed along the Niagara Escarpment of western New York as the “Lockport limestone.”† His choice of Lockport as the type locality for these rocks is easy to understand; excellent exposures of the strata had recently been created by excavations for the Erie Canal. The resistant ridge of carbonate rocks east of Lake Erie was one of the most challenging obstacles for canal engineers. In fact, the nearly 20-meter rise in elevation required a sequence of five locks and was the very last stretch of the canal system completed prior to the grand opening on 26 October 1825 (figs. 1, 2) (Lewis 1964; Pool 1897). Many fine mineral specimens Minerals of the Silurian Lockport Group of New York State have been of interest to scientists and collectors for more than two hundred years. In 1808 Dr. Archibald Bruce* reported the occurrence of small cubic crystals of “fluate of lime” (fluorite) in rocks “near the falls of Niagara.” According to Bruce, this was the first documented occurrence of fluorite in the United States: “The fluate of lime, though well known in many parts of Europe, has hitherto been unnoticed in the United States” (Bruce 1808, p. 442). Although many of the minerals within the Lockport Group strata had undoubtedly been observed during the initial settlement of western New York, it was the construction of the Erie Canal in the city of Lockport between 1822 and 1825 that exposed many beautiful specimens. Widespread interest in the mineralogy of the Lockport Group began after publication of reports and early textbooks documenting the minerals encountered during these excavations (Cleaveland 1822; Eaton 1824; Hall 1824; Webster 1824) and increased dramatically after publication of the following