Rockhounding: Marmora

Visiting Marmora was an amazing experience.  Mining in this location goes back to the 1820s, and as one hikes around the site, the idea of all this rock being moved by men and horses is mind-boggling.

A photograph simply can’t do justice to the size of the open pit (now half filled with water), or the 150′ mountain of dump rock that exist at this site.  Everything is on a massive scale, and I liked it.

Climbing the dump pile was a little worrisome at times, as the rocks continue to shift, but we made it safely up in the end.  Even the magnetite specimens here are on a large scale: some boulders easily being the size of my car (and weighing a good deal more!)  Over the course of the day we hunted and enjoyed the autumn view from the vantage of this height.

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