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One of the most collectible non-gem minerals on Earth. It’s calcium fluoride, the primary source of fluorine, a highly reactive element and an important industrial chemical. Fluoridated toothpaste and water get their fluorine from this mineral.

Fluorite is found throughout the world. Major deposits are in the U.S. (particularly Illinois & Kentucky), Mexico, South Africa, England, Spain, and France. But collectible minerals come from even minor, non-economic deposits.

Crystals have perfect cleavage (they break really easily!) and are soft – 4 on Moh’s hardness scale. That combination makes the cut stones a bad choice for jewelry. One tiny bump and it can be scratched or crack. Drop it and it’s history!

Fluorite occurs in virtually every color and hue but in its purest form is completely transparent. Purple, blue, yellow and green are the most sought crystals. The cube is the most common form, but other shapes include octahedron, tetrahexahedron, dodecahedron, etc. – and combinations thereof!

I have written extensively about the fluorite deposits of southern Illinois and western Kentucky (see my bibliography). The “fluorspar district” has a dedicated page, so the specimens shown here are from other locations.

Link to Photos from Non-U.S. Locations

Colorado

Nancy Hanks claim, Unaweep Canyon in Mesa County, is a mine known for green fluorite.

Wagon Wheel Gap Mine, Saguache County, is well known for fluorite,

Indiana

Mathes Quarry, Harrison Co. (currently owned by Vulcan Materials which has ceased operations)

Corydon Quarry, Harrison Co. – is best known for pink dolomite and calcite, but also has a fair amount of fluorite scattered in pockets. Fluorite is usually the first mineral to form in pockets and is often partially or completely covered by later dolomite.

Kentucky

Irvington Quarry, Breckenridge Co. – perhaps the best fluorite outside of the western Kentucky fluorspar district and the central Kentucky Mineral District. Purple and yellow cubes in a specific layer that is rarely mined these days.

Muldraugh dome in Meade County, at Fort Knox – Geodes bearing isolated, usually etched, fluorite cubes occur in geodes found near the center of the geological a structure.

Hayden Mine (East Faircloth vein), Mundy’s Landing, Woodford Co. near the Kentucky River. These photos were from a summer 1989 collecting trip. Photos inside the mine will eventually be posted.

A temporary quarry was established on the Bluegrass Parkway at KY33 during road work. It was buried and covered in grass and is no longer visible – much less collectable.

Idaho

Keystone Mountains, Idaho – a location described to me by economic geologist Allen Heyl that I forwarded to Idaho collector Lanny Ream.

New Mexico

There are many fluorite occurrences in New Mexico. Some are on claims others on private ranches where collecting is no allowed.

Fluorite, almost botryoidal. Label says “Redrock, New Mexico.” Based on a photo of the specimen, Mineral expert Ray Demark thinks it is from the Great Eagle mine, Telegraph district, Grant Co., New Mexico – which isn’t far from Red Rock. Collected in 1993. Obtained in trade from Kevin Ponzio (Wisconsin) at the 2009 Kyana Geological Society show.

Ohio

The Silurian limestone quarries in Ohio are famous for fluorite. It is usually yellow or brown due to organic inclusions like petroleum. As such, they fluoresce brightly.

Wyoming

Fluorite

Fluorite – Calcium Fluoride – became an important mineral in the 1880s when it was found to be an ideal flux to purify molten iron. Since then, it has found thousands of other industrial uses. During World War II, miners and anyone associated with the fluorspar mining industry were not allowed to join the fight in Europe or the Pacific. They had to produce ore for the war effort. Anyone who slipped away to join the army were sent home to work the mines!

Fluorite occurs in many colors. In the district, shades of purple and yellow were most common in the bedding replacement deposits, while white and brown were common in the veins. Blue is well-documented and highly sought by collectors. Green was found in the Rose mine in Hick’s dome. I found pink crystals at Conn’s mine in Pope Co. In general, most fluorite doesn’t fluoresce in the fluorspar district, except from oil inclusions. Fluorite around Hick’s dome has enough rare earth elements so it glows bright blue!

Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Specimens

Backlit fluorite octahedra at the Clement Mineral Museum

Fluorite with a fluorescent phantom of petroleum inclusions. Clement Mineral Museum specimen.

Fluorite crystal shown above under normal light, blue over yellow.

Complicated purple fluorite crystal cluster. No mine information available.

Text: This fluorite specimen is a gem in the field of gems was probably found before 1919 (before I [Ben Clement] came in Ky. Mr. [Edwin] Reed[er] was great [mine] engineer and a man with a love of minerals – my first desire to collect and my inspiration came from Eng. Redd[er]. He had a fine family always good to me for which I was grateful. See this specimen in sunlight.

Alan’s comments: This specimen looks like the Benzon mine (Cave in Rock) fluorite I saw at the Smithsonian in 1988. (Though smaller.) Benzon mine was at the current location of the Hastie’s mines, and may have included the Austin Lead, Oxford Cut, Cleveland, and Green-Defender mines.

I was given historical photos of the fluorspar district by Edwin Reeder’s great niece in the late 1980s. She took a ‘Geology of Kentucky’ class I taught. Edwin Reeder was killed in an automobile accident in Cave in Rock in 1931. He was never married and had no children.

Edwin Reeder photo of the Rosiclare mill complex in 1919.

Squire Riley fluorite carvings in the Clement Mineral Museum collection.

This gallery includes native species and my favorite garden flowers. Look for information with each photo. I live in plant zone 6. I’m using the most common name although sometimes it might be the Latin name.

Dolomite is another common mineral in sedimentary rock. It’s a carbonate mineral CaMg(CO₃)₂. Crystals are usually rhombic though growth can create a saddle-shape crystal. Color is commonly pearly white, but it can be pink, yellow, orange, brown or red. Those with the reddish tinge have iron in the atomic structure and are called ferroan dolomite.

Corydon Crushed Stone Quarry in Harrison Co., Indiana, is a top 3 or 4 American locality for its pink color. Intensity is variable and the color disappears if the specimen is left outside for a period of months or years.

Harrodsburg, Monroe Co., Indiana, is a famous collecting locality for geodes. One of my favorites is the dolomite with a little iron giving it a vivid color.

Sellersburg Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana, has rare vugs of dolomite, calcite and pyrite in the Jeffersonville Limestone.

Lebanon Quarry, Marion Co., Kentucky, has pale dolomite crystals in a dolostone breccia and in rare calcareous nodules in the New Albany Shale.

This quarry is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is the closest quarry to downtown Louisville. It is closed to collectors (don’t even ask) since late 2009.

The bottom of the quarry is Laurel Dolostone (Middle Silurian) and in ascending order: Waldron Shale, Louisville Limestone, Jeffersonville Limestone (Middle Devonian), Speed Limestone, North Vernon (= Sellersburg) Limestone, Beechwood Limestone, and basal New Albany Shale.

Unless noted, these photos were taken during a geology club visit on July 2004.

Annotated with site information, including geological / paleontological / mineralogical. Many quarries listed are closed or no longer allow collectors. This album serves to document geological locations – not to provide locations for you to visit. Assume all active mines to be closed to casual collecting.

Atkin’s Quarry in Jeffersonville, Indiana, was visited between 1994 and 2009. Access was curtailed with new management and policies in late 2009. Click on photo to see more.

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Hastie’s Quarries, Hardin Co., Illinois

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Speed Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana (Operated by Louisville Cement, then Essroc, then Italicementi, and now Heidelburg Cement, it will be closing soon if not already.)

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Annabel Lee Mine – A fluorite mine in Hardin Co., Illinois that I visited with Chris Anderson in May, 1987. We spent an 8-hour shift documenting the mine operations and geology.

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Coral Ridge / General Shale Brick Company, Jefferson Co., Kentucky – The type locality for the Coral Ridge pyrite-replaced fauna described by James Conkin in his master’s thesis published by the Paleontological research Institute in 1957. Many fossils were found over the years. The site became inaccessible in mid-2010 as our contact and many employees were laid off due to the 2008-9 recession and the lack of home building.

Additional locations – when I have time!

Boyle Co., Kentucky geode hunting – An area with geodes from smaller than an inch to bigger than 2-feet across. Mostly quartz with minor calcite, hematite, etc.

Cedar Creek Quarry, Bardstown, Kentucky – a limestone quarry (now closed) famous for trilobites in the Laurel dolostone. It also had brachiopods, crinoids, cephalopods, pyrite, calcite and sphalerite.

Carroll Co., Kentucky road cuts – in the Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, they contain brachiopods, bryozoans, graptolites, mollusks, trilobites, and trace fossils.

Corydon Quarry, Harrison Co., Indiana – famous for superb pink dolomite with calcite of various shades of tan to white, often with inclusions of iron, rarely with millerite or MnO2. Quarry is active and closed to collecting.

Elizabethtown Quarry, Kentucky – a long-closed and now privately owned quarry that we collected 900 crinoids between 1990 – 1994. The scientific papers naming 9 new species were a result. The quarry had diverse Muldraugh, Harrodsburg & Salem Formation faunas.

Hardin Co., Kentucky road cuts – on Hwy 313, from the New Providence Shale to the St. Louis Limestone, Middle Mississippian age. Various fossils and geodes of calcite or gypsum.

Illinois side of the IL-KY fluorspar district (excluding Hastie’s & Annabel Lee mines)

Irvington Quarry, Breckinridge Co., Kentucky – famous for fluorite, calcite with minor quartz and other minerals. Locality owned by Liter’s, Inc. Closed to collectors, though the last time I visited, collecting was hardly worth the effort.

Kentucky side of the IL-KY fluorspar district – numerous old mines primarily dot Crittenden and Livingston Counties. No active mines since the 1960s.

Lebanon Quarry, Marion Co., Kentucky – Multiple quarries in various stages from long to recently abandoned to recently opened. Calcite and Ordovician fossils primarily. Oldest quarry has some Devonian fossils, largely weathered too much to be interesting.

Salem Quarry, Washington Co., Indiana – this closed quarry was famous for geodes with celestine and calcite. Fossils were known but not widely collected in the Mississippian formations.

Explore the diversity of nature through Alan’s lens*. Infinite diversity in infinite settings!

* And some of my daughter, Emily…

Categories include:

Flowering plants

Birds

Insects, arachnids and other arthropods

Reptiles & amphibians

Mammals

Fish

Ecological settings

Weather and Clouds

These are photographs representing many of the species I have collected over the years. I have 629 species, 373 genera of brachiopods in my collection.

These pages illustrate a lot of different kinds of fossils. Within 60 minutes of the Louisville, Kentucky, area, geological time periods represented include: Upper Ordovician, Silurian, Middle – Upper Devonian, and Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous). The Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) is a bit beyond. The Pleistocene is represented by sand & gravel, loess and cave deposits.

Consider all guides to be “works in-progress. Images and information will be added.

Brachiopods               

Bryozoans                  

Corals                        

Echinoderms              

Mollusks

Sponges                

Trace Fossils

Trilobites & Crustaceans         

Misc. Fossils (Plants, wor犀利士 ms, microfossils, problematic, vertebrates)

Waldron Shale Fauna