New England Mining Company Quarry (Roebling Mine; Hewitt's Mine), Upper Merryall, New Milford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
New England Mining Company Quarry (Roebling Mine; Hewitt's Mine)	Quarry
Upper Merryall	Village
New Milford	Town
Litchfield County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

Several granite pegmatites that, according to Sterrett (1923), were first mined by the New England Mining Co. (Elwell, 1937) in 2 quarries for mica and feldspar between 1880-1900, but gem beryl proved to be a valuable by-product. Many crystals of beryl, some of them more than a foot in diameter, were found in the quarry. In 1896 4,000 gemstones were reportedly cut (Hawes, 1984). Five cut beryl gemstones of various colors "all from Litchfield County" (Clarke, 1889) were donated to the Smithsonian. The catalog (Merrill, 1922) also shows two others, the largest of all being 40.44 carats (no. 1037). At that time the mine was owned by S. L. Wilson and George Roebling. The operation was financed in part by Washington A. Roebling of New Jersey, an avid mineralogist and son of Brooklyn Bridge designer John A. Roebling.

At the turn of the century, new operators discovered uranium salts there and charged patrons to sit and bask in natural radiation thought to cure arthritis (Hawes, 1984).

George Roebling solely owned it in 1914, when he still had a few specimens showing the quality of the gem material.

Cameron and others (1954) reported that in 1944 the property was owned by Henry Orzech. One ton of beryl is said to have been recovered from the no. 1 quarry by Mr. Orzech’s sons since 1936. It was worked sporadically after then. In the summer of 1944, Cyril Ulman of Guilford, Conn., worked the no. 2 quarry for mica for a period of 2 weeks.

Inspired by Roebling's finds, prospector Howard Hewitt worked the property extensively for gem beryl from at least 1953 until the 1970s. In August 1953, Hewitt shipped 2,300 pounds of beryl to the Beryllium Corporation in Reading, Pennsylvania, which may have netted him between $300 and $600/ton (Anonymous, 1953). During the 1970s until his death in 1981, Howard Hewitt reportedly worked Roebling only sporadically. During this time he worked mainly at the Sawmill Quarry in Haddam (after his brother Herb, who had previously worked Sawmill, passed away).

After Howard, the quarry was more vigorously worked for gem beryl, much of the remaining intact pegmatite was quarried and, with previously loose material, was screened through a trommel.

As of 2013, the property is still owned by the Orzech family and remains closed.

Note: Collectors who were there in the 1970s report seeing minerals from the Sawmill Quarry near Howard's work shack at Roebling. A 1970s advertisement the Hewitt's created shows gemstones mostly from Roebling, but also from Sawmill. The Hewitt's also traded minerals with the owners of the Slocum Prospect http://www.mindat.org/loc-6346.html in East Hampton, Conn. and the Walden Gem Mine http://www.mindat.org/loc-6749.html in Portland, Conn. (both fee collecting sites in the 1960s and 1970s). So some specimens in collections reportedly from or associated with Roebling material may be from these other localities.

The best geological description comes from Cameron et al (1954), below are excerpts:

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References