The Harding Pegmatite Mine in Taos County, New Mexico is owned by the State and managed by the University of New Mexico. You can visit and collect up to five pounds of material but there is a procedure you must follow and an unmarked entrance road you must find.
I describe those details in my Places to Visit and Collect in the Southwest file (external link) at my rockhounding site.
Taos County is D.H. Lawrence country and still home to countless artists, writers, and their studios.
These photographs are from last October.
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- This signboard is well off the main, paved road.
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- No large RVs or trailers.
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- They were finding beryl for making into beryllium.
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- Did you ever think a mine could be this pretty?
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- What can I say?
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- Mine walls sparkle with mica.
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- Pegmatites are volcanic in origin and usually rich in minerals.
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- Get the Harding Mine pamphlet before going to understand these signposts.
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- Sparkles in the rock can’t be captured with a still camera, try video.
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- Unmarked entrance road. I give its GPS location in my travel file.
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- Iceland spar once collected near the mine.
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