Rumford Falls, Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, USAi

Regional Level Types
Rumford Falls	Waterfall
Rumford	Town
Oxford County	County
Maine	State
USA	Country

Calc-silicate deposit. The village of Rumford was originally known as Rumford Falls because of its prominent waterfalls on the Androscoggin River.

Jackson (1838, pp. 97-99) discovered beds of limestone and wrote: "On a point just below the great falls, there is a bed of granular limestone... This bed is of a coarse granular or crystaline [sic] variety of carbonate of lime, containing scattered green crystals of actynolite and pargasite, in small grains and fibres. ... A variety of crystallized silicates of various kinds, are found in the poorer limestone beds; and observing their resemblance to similar productions of the Phipsburg [sic] limestone, I searched and found a number of those rare minerals which I had formerly discovered at the latter locality. Yellow garnet, massive and crystallized - egeran - pyroxene, of several species and varieties - such as sahlite, augite and pargasite. Phosphate of lime, of the variety called asparagus stone, &c. occur, with a few scattered crystals of scapolite."

Jackson continued with a report on the usefulness of the limestone to make lime and how much might be quarried. Many local mineral collectors probably visited the area to collect minerals, but those who searched during the 20th century all reported disappointment. It is unknown if the limestone was used to make lime. However, with the rapid development of Rumford into a paper manufacturing town in the early 1890s, the construction of a hydroelectric dam may have obscured the outcrops, and/or any limestone beds remaining could have been submerged because of the small dams used to raise river water levels to channel the log drive wood into the paper mill. The only important "point" is now occupied by a small city park, which offers an excellent view of the falls.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References