FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Bob Harman]

From my earlier days when I regularly went to Ohio quarries on field trips. August 2008.

[Bob Harman]

Many of the quarries in the Findlay Arch area of Northwest Ohio produce celestine. The habits are quite varied between Lime City Quarry, Sylvania Quarry and this example from the White Rock Quarry in Clay Center Ohio and also much different than the quarries of Southeast Michigan and Indiana. One of the more common crystal habits are these white bladed crystals such as these found about 2005 in the White Rock Quarry in Clay Center Ohio.
What makes this example quite remarkable are the multiple intact sprays with nearly all undamaged and terminated delicately bladed crystals.
I rarely touch this specimen as it is quite delicate so it was photographed in place on the display shelf.

[Bob Harman]

About 10 years ago workers in the White Rock Quarry in Clay Center, Ottawa County, Ohio blasted into a very large void chock full of hi quality rootbeer colored fluorite cubes and much interspersed celestine. Some of the smaller fluorite cubes were iridescent while the larger cubes were not.
Shortly after this event, I acquired a number of differing examples. This is one example of smaller iridescent cubes and much intermixed bladed celestine..

[Jamison Brizendine]

Very nice example Bob!

Here are three different examples of the same mineral combinations. Two were collected in the 1950s, while the first example was one of my very first mineral purchases.

[Bob Harman]

In about 2007 blasting in the White Rock Quarry, Clay Center Ohio, opened a very large void filled with hi quality fluorites, celestine, and some accompanying calcite. These were on matrix and in various combinations. A local collector/dealer had a fortuitous agreement with the quarry management ostensibly to "donate rocks to local school corporations for study" and, indeed, did donate much of the lower end material to local school corporations for educational purposes. But the better and higher end material......and there was a lot of it!......was kept for her collection and for sale.
The dealer had regularly come to our regional show so, at our next show, after this great find, everyone was lined up at her tables ready to buy whatever she had and whatever they could afford. It sold like hot cakes for pennies on today's dollar. Here is one of the larger pieces that I acquired. Sadly, the dealer unexpectedly passed a couple of years ago. Her personal specimens have now been disbursed with no more to come from the quarry based upon her original agreement.

[Jamison Brizendine]

Most mineral collectors are aware that Ohio is one of the few places in the world to produce iridescent fluorite. Although the Auglaize Quarry in Junction, Paulding County, Ohio is the best known of these quarries, there are several of them that are historical producers of iridescent fluorites (Tiffin, Bluffton, Genoa, Maple Grove and Clay Center to name a few). One of the quarries in Ohio to produce excellent fluorite specimens, but are scarce to find are those from the Charles Pfizer & Company Inc. Quarry in Gibsonburg, Sandusky County, Ohio.

The Charles Pfizer Company Inc. Gibsonburg Quarry began operation in the early 1900s as the Standard Lime Company (Orton and Peppel, 1906). It was then renamed the Gibsonburg Lime Products Corporation Quarry in the 1940s (Stout, 1941).

In 1962, the Charles Pfizer Co. purchased the quarry, until it closed and flooded in the early 1980s. Specimens from the quarry are fairly difficult to come by. Like many other fluorites from Ohio, they fluoresce strongly under a longwave ultraviolet light, where iridescence is not exposed. It should also be mentioned that the Charles Pfizer Quarry, though the largest, was not the only quarry in Gibsonburg. The now flooded Steetley Quarry and the flooded White Star Quarry (now a beach and scuba diving park) also produced fluorite specimens, but never produced iridescent fluorites like the Pfizer Quarry produced.

I got a chance to talk to John Medici at the Columbus, OH Show and Jay Medici at the Mansfield Show, OH. John and Jay both had some great specimens on display at the Columbus Show, but I finally have some time to process them and share them on FMF.

References Cited:

Orton, E. and Peppel, S.V. (1906) The limestone resources and the lime industry in Ohio. Geological Survey of Ohio, Bulletin 4: 360-364.

Stout, W.E. (1941) Dolomites and limestones of western Ohio. Ohio Division of Geological Survey: Bulletin 45, 230 p.

[Bob Harman]

I reviewed Michael Shaw's Ohio contributions from January 18, 2011 and believe that the correct locality for his fluorite specimen in photo #4 of his group posting would be the White Rock Quarry, Clay Center Ohio (there is no such quarry as the Maumee Quarry near Clay Center).

[Bob Harman]

To further update this Ohio thread, in the July-August 2019 issue of the Mineralogical Record, John Medici et al have an extensive article on the Auglaize Quarry. A couple of his Auglaize Quarry fluorite specimen photos from his previous January 2012 postings on this thread (and many others) are also featured in this recent MR article. Bob

[Michael Shaw]

[Bob Harman]

Michael, Okay, good!!

It was either White Rock Quarry if close to Clay center, Ottawa County Ohio.
OR
Maumee Stone Quarry, now Stoneco Quarry near Lime City, Lucas County Ohio. BOB

[R Saunders]

A thumbnail specimen from Duff Quarry. Pyrite and calcite

[Bob Harman]

I believe your specimen is pyrite and Calcite as most of those similar examples were calcite. You might try a bit of vinegar to either etch out the remaining calcite or see if it fizzes. Bob