[at-l] Rose of Maine, not Maine Rose

[agaudet at theworld.com (Arthur Gaudet)]

I thought this would be interesting story for those walking along the AT in
Maine. While there this past week I went rock hunting about 10 miles from
the trail, it's a well known collecting area. Didn't find much just some
small colorless touralimes and lightly colored amethyst. But I heard the
story of the Rose of Maine, and confirmed it in town with the man who
brokered the transaction for the Holden brothers.

In 1989 the Holden brothers uncovered a single "gem pink" beryl (also known
as morganite) that weighed 51 pounds, and yielded 183,000 carats from the
Bennett Quarry in Buckfield, ME. It's the largest one found in North
America, valued more than $2 million. The brothers disagreed on how to sell
the thing so it was broken into 3 rough blocks so that they could go their
separate ways. The debris was also divided (called gem rough) in order to
even out the weights. One piece, weighing 13 lbs. was sold to the Peabody
Museum at Harvard and is on display. As far as I know the remaining pieces
have all been sold, and a quick websearch told me that many pieces of the
"Rose of Maine" are available for purchase.

Now the story, a lesson in how communications get corrupted, even in a short
period of time. I went to Andover, ME and sat in Addy's cafe with a known AT
personality who's been living in that area since before the 1989 find. The
story he told me, in the absence of my knowledge, went like this.

"The brothers found a large Touramaline, the best ever found. They fought
and decided to have the stone broken because they couldn't agree how to sell
the thing. When it was cracked it wrecked the stone and they ended up with
nothing."

Here the story has been turned into a morality tale, all in a period of 14
years. The stone changed form morganite to tourmaline, the value from more
than $2 million to 0, the sin of fighting with your brother brought down the
hand of God to teach a lesson. Amazing!

--RockDancer