
Rockhounding Massachusetts
Massachusetts is a good state for rockhounding. There are dinosaur track sites in the Connecticut River Valley.
State Rocks, Gemstones, Minerals, Fossils, & Dinosaurs
Rockhounding Tip: Knowing state rocks, gemstones, minerals, fossils, and dinosaurs often can be very useful information for rockhounders. Ordinarily, states with significant mineral deposits, valuable gemstones, fossils, or unusual or significant rock occurrences will designate an official state mineral, rock/stone, gemstone, fossil, or dinosaur to promote interest in the state’s natural resources, history, tourism, etc. Accordingly, such state symbols often are a valuable clue as to potential worthwhile rockhounding opportunities.

Roxbury Puddingstone
State Rock:
Roxbury Puddingstone (Roxbury Conglomerate) (1983)
Massachusetts designated the Roxbury Puddingstone
(Roxbury Conglomerate) as its official state rock in 1983. Roxbury Puddingstone is a puddingstone or
conglomerate stone that forms the bedrock underlying most of Roxbury,
Massachusetts, and now part of the City of Boston. Puddingstone (aka pudding stone, plum pudding stone)
is a common name used mainly in England for a conglomerate consisting of
well-rounded clasts whose colors are in such marked contrast with the abundant
fine-grained matrix or cement that the rock suggests an old fashioned plum
pudding. A prime example is the lower
Eocene Hertfordshire Puddingstone in England, composed of black or brown flint
pebbles cemented by white silica with or without brown iron hydroxide. Roxbury puddingstone did not originate in the Boston
area. No one knows for sure where this
rock formed; it has some affinities with rocks found in West Africa, and also
shares traits with some South American rocks.
Geologists do agree that the Roxbury Conglomerate was deposited between 600
million and 570 million years ago somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Plate tectonics carried it into North America
about 200 million years later.

Rhodonite
State
Gemstone: Rhodonite (1979)
Massachusetts designated rhodonite as
its official state gemstone in 1979. Rhodonite forms as hydrothermal deposits and
in metamorphic rocks and is often found associated with black manganese
minerals. It varies in hue from a light
pink to a deep rose or reddish pink. It is named after the Greek word for rose, rhodon. Its rose-pink color is distinctive. On occasion, it is confused with Rhodochrosite
that also is pink to red in color, but streaked with white minerals such as
calcite and is reactive to acids. Rhodonite
does not react when tested with acids and usually is associated with black
manganese and pyrite.

Babingtonite
State
Mineral: Babingtonite (1971)
Massachusetts designated Babingtonite
as its official state mineral in 1971. It
is a black to dark green mineral. Babingtonite
is rather uncommon, and, outside of Massachusetts is found in Poona, India;
Devon, England; and Baveno, Italy.

Dinosaur Tracks
State
Fossil: Dinosaur Track (1980)
Massachusetts designated the dinosaur
track as its official state fossil in 1980.
Although dinosaur bones are lacking in the state of Massachusetts,
tracks are common. Several types of
dinosaur prints are known from the state, including Eubrontes, Grallator, Anchisauripus, and Otozoum. Rather than pick
a single one of these, the legislature designated the generic "dinosaur
track" to cover them all.
These tracks are found in Jurassic Period
sediments from about 200 million years ago. At that time, the supercontinent of Pangea was
rifting apart and the Atlantic Ocean was beginning to form. Mudflats along the western shore of this new
seaway provided the perfect environment for the preservation of the footprints
of dinosaurs that passed along the beaches.
The first dinosaur tracks in
Massachusetts were discovered in 1802, and more have been discovered during the
subsequent two centuries. The Dinosaur
Footprint Reservation at Mt. Tom near Holyoke preserves a particularly good
trackway record.
In Granby, the prints of a theropod dinosaur fifty feet in
length from head to tail (the first record of a theropod of such magnitude), was
found.

State Explorer Rock:
Dighton
Rock (1983)
Massachusetts
designated Dighton Rock as its official explorer rock in 1983.

State Historical Rock:
Plymouth Rock (1983)
Massachusetts
designated Plymouth Rock as its official State Historical Rock in 1983. The Pilgrims, of course, did not actually land
on Plymouth Rock.

Fletcher Granite Quarry - North Chemsford, Massachusetts
State Building & Monument Stone: Granite (1983)
Massachusetts designated Granite as its
official building and monument stone in 1983. The last Ice Age did leave Massachusetts with
exceptionally fine samples of this rock; granite from Quincy was used to build
the Washington Monument.
Rockhounding Resources

State-specific rockhounding books (including the books listed here as well as other books), regional rockhounding site guides, and other helpful rockhounding resources are identified - by category - in the Books & Gear section of Gator Girl Rocks with a link to the Gator Girl Rocks Amazon Store where you may easily browse selected resources and securely place an order. Your order will benefit Charity Rocks!

Office of the Massachusetts State Geologist
Website includes useful information.

Connecticut Valley Mineral Club
A useful resource that includes Massachusetts’s
rockhounding information.
- James W. Skehan, Roadside Geology of Massachusetts (2001).
- Peter Gleba, Massachusetts Mineral & Fossil Localities (1978).
- Allan W. Eckert, Earth Treasures Vol. 1 - Northeastern Quadrant (1985; reprint in 2000).
- James Martin Monaco & Jeannette Hathway Monaco, Fee Mining & Mineral Adventures in the Eastern U.S. (2d ed. 2010).
- Kathy J. Rygle & Stephen F. Pedersen, Northeast Treasure Hunter's Gem & Mineral Guide (4th ed. 2008).
Museums of Interest to Rockhounders

Mineralogical Museum at Harvard University
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University
– Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Harvard mineral collection ranks among the world's
finest due to its very broad representation, wealth of rare species, and large
number of specimens described in the scientific literature, and the quality of
its display specimens. The Mineralogical
Museum was first built in 1891. Today, a
rich systematic mineral collection and displays of gemstones are the principal
exhibits in the mineral gallery. More
than 5,000 exceptional mineral specimens representing 1,500 mineral species are
displayed. Many of the approximately
2,000 gemstones in the collection are on display.

Beneski Museum of Natural History
Amherst College - Amherst, Massachusetts
The museum has outstanding collections and its
exhibits include vertebrate and invertebrate
paleontology, minerals, and other geologic specimens. The museum’s collection also includes the world-famous
"Noah's Raven," tracks discovered in 1802 in South Hadley,
Massachusetts. This specimen constitutes
the first dinosaur fossil to be collected in North America – 40 years before
dinosaurs were even recognized as a distinct fossil group.

Springfield Science Museum
Springfield, Massachusetts
The museum’s ‘Dinosaur Hall’ includes replicas
as well as some dinosaur fossils. The
museum exhibits rocks, minerals, and fossils.
Places to Visit - Interesting Sites To See

Plymouth Rock
Pilgrim Memorial State Park - Plymouth Massachusetts
The granite rock, upon which the sea-wearied
Pilgrims from the Mayflower first impressed their footsteps. The top (visible) 1/3 of Plymouth Rock weighs
approximately 4 tons. The bottom portion
(under the sand) weighs approximately 6 tons. The Rock as it exists today is estimated to be
only about 1/3 to 1/2 of its original size - the top half has been dragged
around town, broken, and chipped away at by 18th and 19th century souvenir
hunters.

Dighton Rock
Dighton Rock State Park - Berkley, Massachusetts
Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder
originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley,
Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton). Dighton Rock is noted for its petroglyphs -
carved designs - of ancient and uncertain origin, and the controversy about
their creators. In 1963, during
construction of a cofferdam, state officials removed the rock from the river
for preservation. It was installed in a
museum in a nearby park (Dighton Rock State Park).

Dinosaur Footprints
Mt. Tom near Holyoke
This site includes more than 130 tracks revealed
in slabs of sandstone. Researchers believe these prints were left by small
groups of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs, up to 15’ tall. The entire Connecticut River Valley – which
scientists believe was a sub-tropical swamp a “mere” 190 million years ago –
has long been recognized for its wealth of prehistoric footprints.

Nash Dinosaur Track Site & Rock Shop
South Hadley, Massachusetts
The Nash Dinosaur Track Site and Rock Shop is
located about one mile from where the first dinosaur tracks in the Connecticut
River Valley were found in 1802 by a farmer named Pliny Moody. Visitors can see dinosaur tracks. The site also includes a commercial rock and
fossil shop.
Rockhounding Sites for Children & Families
Rhodonite
Betts Manganese Mine – Plainfield,
Massachusetts
Commercial
(fee access) business.
Minerals
Historic Lead Mines near Loudville,
Hampshire County, Massachusetts
The dumps
at the historic lead mines are collected for mineral specimens.