Franklin Mineral Museum  

To that end, the Museum acquires, preserves, and displays mineralogical and geological specimens, artifacts, and documents related to the history and mineralogy of the Franklin-Sterling Hill mining district. The Museum also acquires and shows archeological and paleontological specimens and other items of interest.  The Franklin Mineral Museum, a nonprofit educational institution, is located at 32 Evans Street, Franklin, Sussex County, northern New Jersey, New Jersey. The Museum was created solely for educational and scientific purposes, was incorporated on June 2, 1964, and first opened its doors to visitors on October 9, 1965.

Museum History

Franklin, New Jersey, and its close neighbor, Ogdensburg, are the homes of the world’s most famous zinc mines. The zinc ore here was fabulously wealthy, averaging nearly 25% zinc by weight, and there was a lot of it; over the years, these two mines produced 33 million tons of ore. By any measure, these two orebodies and the metamorphosed limestone that encloses them comprise one of the top ten mineral localities in the world, a fact known to mineral collectors and professional mineralogists alike.

The Franklin orebody, in particular, is famous for its spectacular fluorescent minerals and abundance of rare mineral species. Indeed, nothing resembling it has been found anywhere else on our planet, save its sister orebody at Sterling Hill, 2.5 miles away in Ogdensburg.

By the early 1950s, the Franklin mine was nearing the end of its life, and in 1954 the last of the ore was raised to the surface. At that time, many in the community wished to preserve the heritage of this excellent locality.  Miners sold specimens to collectors out of their basements. Scientific papers on the deposits continued to be published. In 1959, a group of collectors banded together to form the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), still in existence today. One of the stated goals of FOMS from the start was to assist in the founding and support of a museum in Franklin dedicated to the local minerals.

Enter the Franklin Kiwanis club, which took on the challenge of creating just such a museum as a community project. Five years later, thanks to the efforts of the Kiwanians, some of whom were also FOMS members, the Franklin Mineral Museum opened its doors to the public. EZ Bed Bug Exterminator NJ

Collections

The Franklin Mineral Museum in northern New Jersey, NJ is one of the top five repositories of Franklin-Sterling Hill minerals worldwide. It maintains both an extensive display collection for the enjoyment and education of the public and an increasingly comprehensive reference collection for archival and scientific purposes. Our holdings currently number more than 7,000 specimens from the local area, nearly all of which have been labeled and cataloged in a relational database.

 

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