IIn Dec 2021 I was asked to hunt down a long-forgotten gold mine from the late 1800s that was said to be in southeastern New England. The prospectus of the mine mentioned, “three veins of siliceous ore,” had assayed to have a significant quantity of gold. A quantity large enough to be more gold per ton than the Johannesburg gold mines. Though it was thought to be rich with gold, today very few are aware of its existence.

I was not familiar with this mine, and I began to dig through my resources to see what I could find. I soon could understand why its location was lost. There was very little information available concerning this mine, and detail of its location were vague. Due to this the description of its location was interpreted incorrectly and reinforce by later material published about the mine.

With a bit of detective work I was able to zero in on the true location of the mine. Viewing LIDAR of the area I found feature I suspected were from the mine and headed out to ground truth them. It didn’t take long for me to find the remains of the mine. The entire worked area of the mine covers over 600 feet. The only feature I found that might be associated with the gold mining was at the main quarry. At the southwest end I found a water filled pit that is 10 feet or more deep. Not far from the pit I found several quartz veins. They were the only quartz veins I could find in the area.

As for gold, in 1971 a report done by geologist Clarence E Miller mentions arsenopyrite being found in this area. Arsenopyrite is associated with significant amounts of gold. Consequently, it often serves as an indicator of gold bearing reefs. I suspect a small lens of arsenopyrite was found, leading to the belief of much more gold to be found. When the gold reef was never discovered, the operation was shut down. Faint signs of gold mining, and no evidence for the facilities for processing the gold ore helps to support my conclusion.