Updated August 2026
36 mapped spots across 9 counties. Maine pegmatite country is known for tourmaline, beryl, aquamarine, apatite, and smoky quartz. Mount Mica, Mount Apatite, and Newry anchor the state's gem-mining history.
The best rockhounding in Maine is at Catherine Mountain (Donnell Pond) in Hancock County (molybdenite, scheelite), Edgecomb Quarry (Schmid Preserve) in Lincoln County (almandine garnet, beryl), and Swift River at Coos Canyon in Oxford County (gold, garnet). In total, 36 mapped collecting spots across 9 counties produce quartz, beryl, and feldspar, each listed below with coordinates and land access notes.
Representative spot and material photos from locations in this state, shown where verified public image records are available.
Map showing 36 rockhounding spots in Maine
Counts reflect how many spots in this list mention each mineral.
Notable areas: Mount Mica tourmaline, Mount Apatite pegmatite minerals, Western Maine aquamarine, and morganite are common Maine targets.
Western Maine sits on a belt of granite pegmatites intruded during the Devonian Acadian orogeny. The pegmatites carry gem tourmaline, including green and watermelon tourmaline from Newry, plus beryl, aquamarine, morganite, spodumene, lepidolite, smoky quartz, and apatite. Public collecting is limited on the coast; most gem collecting is inland from Lewiston through Oxford County.
The center of Maine gem country. Mount Mica is the longest continuously worked gem mine in the U.S.; Newry is known for Maine watermelon tourmaline. Most mines are private, with fee digs at Bumpus and a handful of operators.
Mount Apatite Park (a city park in Auburn) is open for hand collecting of pegmatite minerals, purple and pink apatite, smoky quartz, garnet. No digging in walls.
Scattered pegmatite occurrences and the Songo Pond emerald area; mostly private land or club-only access.
May through October. Most fee-dig mines run weekends Memorial Day through Columbus Day. Winter is locked up under snow.
A small hammer, chisels, safety glasses, gloves, a sieve, and a hand lens. Fee-dig mines often pile fresh tailings on dig days, bring a flat-blade for splitting feldspar pockets.
Mount Mica near Paris has produced gem tourmaline since 1820 and is the longest continuously worked gem mine in North America. The 1972 Plumbago/Newry watermelon tourmaline pocket brought new attention to Maine pegmatites and to New England gem hunting.
Day-trip range. Each section lists the closest mapped rockhounding spots within about 150 miles of the city. Most are inside a 2 to 3 hour drive.
6 closest spots to Portland (Maine), ME.
6 closest spots to Bangor, ME.
6 closest spots to Augusta (Maine), ME.
Geology rarely respects state borders. These states share mapped rockhounding country with Maine, useful when Maine is the start, not the whole trip. Each card links to the closest county across the line.
County pages are linked once we have at least 3 mapped spots for a focused guide with coordinates, mineral notes, and nearby spots.
Hand-picked standouts from the Maine list, chosen for unusual mineralogy, documented public access, or both. Each card links to coordinates, access notes, and what to look for.
Top pickHancock County
Catherine Mountain holds a nineteenth-century molybdenite prospect where molybdenite occurs in granite pegmatite, rare vugs, and fractures, alongside reported scheelite and wolframite.
Molybdenite, Scheelite, Fluorapatite, Magnetite
Top pickLincoln County
The Edgecomb pegmatite pits sit inside the 766-acre Schmid Preserve, town land laced with more than seven miles of public trails, where 1880s feldspar and mica workings exposed almandine garnet, beryl, and aquamarine.
Almandine Garnet, Beryl, Aquamarine, Smoky Quartz
Top pickOxford County
The Swift River at Coos Canyon in Byron carries fine glacial gold and is the most famous recreational gold-panning spot in New England, with flakes recoverable from bedrock crevices in the roadside gorge.
Gold, Garnet, Magnetite, Staurolite
Top pickOxford County
Deer Hill is a US Forest Service designated mineral collecting area in the White Mountain National Forest, known for amethyst recovered by screening the sandy soil.
Amethyst, Beryl, Feldspar, Garnet
Top pickOxford County
Lord Hill is a granite pegmatite in the White Mountain National Forest where more than 50 minerals have been recorded, most famously large white topaz and smoky quartz crystals encrusted with rare phenakite.
Topaz, Phenakite, Smoky Quartz, Feldspar
Top pickAndroscoggin County
Mount Apatite is a lithium-rich pegmatite district where the Pulsifer Quarry produced some of the finest purple apatite crystals in the world, alongside green and pink tourmaline, aquamarine, and lilac lepidolite.
Green Tourmaline, Pink Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Purple Apatite
Top pickOxford County
The historic Harvard Quarry on Noyes Mountain produced the gem green tourmaline that gave the Harvard green color its name, and its dumps still yield schorl, beryl, smoky quartz, rose quartz, and purple apatite.
Green Tourmaline, Schorl, Beryl, Rose Quartz
Top pickFranklin County
The Maine Geological Survey lists the Sandy River from Avon to New Sharon as open to recreational gold prospecting, one of the few reaches where even motorized methods are allowed.
Gold, Garnet, Magnetite
Top pickWashington County
The Maine Geological Survey lists the St. Croix River at Baileyville among the state's recreational gold-panning streams, where the gold is very fine flour gold thought to be shed from nearby base-metal mineralization.
Gold, Garnet, Magnetite
Top pickHancock County
Tunk Mountain is carved from the Tunk Lake pluton, a concentrically zoned alkali granite that grades into rapakivi granite, producing smoky quartz, perthitic feldspar, and dark hornblende-bearing rock.
Smoky Quartz, Feldspar, Hornblende, Biotite
Sorted by county. Tap coordinates to open in Google Maps, or open RockHoundR for the full map view with land overlays and weather.
Open the RockHoundR app to see Maine on a real map with public land overlays, weather, geology, and your saved finds.
