July-August 2009

Minerals of the Silurian Lockport Group

Central and Western New York State

by David G. Bailey, Michael Hawkins, and Charles Hiler

Minerals of the Silurian Lockport Group of New York State have been of interest to scientists and collectors for more than two hundred years. In 1808 Dr. Archibald Bruce reported the occurrence of small cubic crystals of “fluate of lime” (fluorite) in rocks “near the falls of Niagara.” According to Bruce, this was the first documented occurrence of fluorite in the United States: “The fluate of lime, though well known in many parts of Europe, has hitherto been unnoticed in the United States” (Bruce 1808, p. 442).

Dr. David G. Bailey is an associate professor of geoscience in the geosciences department at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and a research associate at the New York State Museum. Michael Hawkins is the geology collections manager at the New York State Museum. Charles Hiler is vice president of the Rochester Academy of Science and an avid collector of New York State minerals.

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