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Ring Details

Name: Sweetgrass

Style#: G4381

Precious Metal: 14K Yellow Gold

Gem: SparHawk Maine Tourmaline = 1.84 carat (7x7mm cushion-cut)

Price: $2,950

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$2,950

Sweetgrass SparHawk Maine Tourmaline Ring

Style #: G4381

Maine’s Sweet Grass
SparHawk Tourmaline Ring

I’ve told parts of this story before. I signed up and went on an archeological dig with the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was a weeklong dig on private property at the head of Frenchman’s Bay. The property was on a peninsula that jutted out into the bay.

I had always wanted to participate in an archeological dig. This dig was led by a Maine State archaeologist. There was a broad field with the owner’s grey shingled house at the far end with the ocean on three sides. We diggers were 350 feet away in a location that previous expeditions had explored before.

When I arrived on Monday morning, there were 20 participants. Areas were marked off with strings. The areas were neat squares, I think 4 feet x 4 feet. Arthur, our archaeologist, explained to us the significance of the spot. It was a contact-era Wabanaki campsite and village about 500 years old and older. Evidence had been found previously that hinted at Maine native people and European contact. Our mission was to dig further and find more evidence.

The amateur archeologists proceeded carefully, working slowly down through the layers.
and Each plot had a recorder to note what was found, where, and at what level.

I was impressed with the precision and thoroughness of the excavation work. We were all volunteers but acted like professionals. Plots were marked off. Three people were assigned to each plot. We dug and feather-dusted our way down. We found hearthstones, shells, animal bones, several arrowheads, and most significantly, colored glass beads, proof of contact and trade with early Europeans.

It appeared our search was successful in establishing that there had been a real summer campsite and that our English ancestors had been there trading in beaver pelts and other things.

Sifting trays under tents in case of rain.

Wednesday of the week it rained, and we diggers worked at the Abbe Museum in their lab. At lunch, I went upstairs to view the museum. At the end of my tour, I visited their gift shop and bought a three-foot-long strand of woven sweetgrass. The following Monday, I brought the sweetgrass into Cross Jewelers and we began designing our first Sweet Grass ring. The design, with its hand-engraved strands, is beautiful.

Our favorite gem for this design is the new SparHawk mint-green-teal Maine tourmaline found in Maine’s western mountains. SparHawk is a native gem in Maine. The Sweetgrass ring is a Native American inspired design.

Sweetgrass
SparHawk Maine Tourmaline Ring

The SparHawk tourmaline gem find occurred at a lost tourmaline mine. The location was very successfully mined 100 years ago. They gave up on the location when they thought it was mined out. Then, nearly 100 years later, a young guy came along and bought the property. He thought he would create house lots. He had heard, though, that tourmaline had been mined there and decided before he started subdividing he’d take a look. He searched for several years, then opened a gem pocket that was so spectacular that if that was all he had found, the gem community would be still talking about it for decades to come. He continued mining, and as they say… the rest is history.

The SparHawk tourmaline mine is currently the most successful gem tourmaline mine in the world today. The cushion-cut SparHawk tourmaline looks spectacular in the Sweet Grass ring. A natural gem of Maine with a Native American weave pattern makes this a powerful American symbol.

Ring Details

Name: Sweetgrass

Style#: G4381

Precious Metal: 14K Yellow Gold

Gem: SparHawk Maine Tourmaline = 1.84 carat (7x7mm cushion-cut)

Price: $2,950

1-800-433-2988 | Monday - Friday 9:30 am to 5:00 pm, EST

More Information

Following are photos from the August
Archeological dig in Sorrento, Maine
at the head of Frenchman’s Bay.

The archeological dig in Sorrento at the Head of Frenchman’s Bay, August 2011 Sponsored by the Abbe Museum of Bar Harbor, Maine

The excavation area, 10 feet above the bay.

Marking off a plot.

A plot being worked about 10 inches down.

The sifting trays set up on A-frames.

Searching at the sorting tray.

Hearth stones in a circle and shell bits.

A fully intact arrowhead.

This was a tiny ax head. A kid’s ax I found on one of the sifting trays. The ax blade had been sanded so smooth, no one in our group believed it was real. The Wabanaki people had kids; just like our kids, they wanted toys imitating their parent’s tools.

Here is a nearly intact 500-year-old arrowhead just discovered.

Our group at lunch on the beach in front of our excavations. The Wabanaki people had good taste in choosing summer encampments.

Lunch on the beach with the digging crew.

House at the end of the peninsula. At the end of the week, after all excavations, each plot was refilled and the grass with roots returned. When everything was finished, the field was returned to its natural state.

The shoreline at the head of Frenchman’s Bay

Contemporary section of sweetgrass woven by Indigenous people

SparHawk Maine Tourmaline

Now to the gem. It’s a native natural gem of Maine, SparHawk mint green teal Maine tourmaline. It’s from a gem mine 28 miles north of our store, cut by a Maine Irish guy who is totally obsessed with gem precision and perfection. There is symphony and harmony in the balance and flow of light within the gem. It’s color and brilliance whispers Celtic beginnings.

I’d like to go back 3,000 years and show the ring to one of my ancestors. They would get it. They’d understand. I’m absolutely certain they and everyone around would all approve of the ring, and if I said to a group of Celtic villagers my minimum price is 16 sheep, two rams, and 3 oxen, there would be stiff competition among all assembled.

Gem Find of a Lifetime Video

World Famous Discoveries

Treasure Trove of Gems

I’ve always dreamed of a gem find like this. To have this mine be so close to home, just 28 miles north of our store in the mountains of western Maine, is amazing. Gems so fine, so pure, with colors so vivid. It’s important someone documents this historic gem find here in Maine, because it’s a history-making discovery in the world of gems.

The video above is 1 minute, 43 seconds. It gives you a good idea of the excitement we feel for the gems we are discovering here in Maine.

Maine has been world-famous for the tourmaline gems mined here for over 200 years. The geology in our western mountains has yielded a treasure trove of world class gems. Cross Jewelers has been the Maine state leader, bringing fine Maine tourmaline jewelry to all of America for over 100 years.

We have over 200 pieces of Maine tourmaline jewelry from both the SparHawk mine and other Maine mines.

Maine’s Crescent of Gems

Consider this…If they found a tourmaline mine in 1820 that is still producing today; if they found $50-million worth of tourmaline on Plumbago Mountain in 1972 and thirty-seven years later, struck Eureka Blue tourmaline 250 feet away. What else is waiting to be found in Maine’s Crescent of Gems?

The SparHawk Tourmaline Mine is Just 25 Miles North of Portland

This is about the Silver Dollar Tourmaline Pocket

Saturday night.
Standing in line to buy a theater ticket. Phone rings .Voice says “this is Jeff, we hit a pocket this afternoon, thought you might like to come up.” I said “What time?” He said “8:30.”

Sunday Morning at the mine. The Silver Dollar Pocket
Day breaks gray, over cast 64 degrees, humid. Later, spots of blue sky appear. Some sun with shifting shade. First photographs of SparHawk Tourmaline and Watermelon Crystals and a 1924 silver dollar for size reference. After that the day just kept getting better.
A small crowd gathers, a scientist, a gem cutter, a jeweler, and five of the state’s best gem miners, drifting in and out throughout the day. Some stay all day. Sounds: jack hammer separating rock. Sounds: mine pump water washing rock and rubble clean. Every one looking for color. Talk: speculation. Talk: certainty. Talk: crystals held to the sky. Talk: wonder. Sounds: dogs barking, dogs running with sticks. Young guys working, old guys watching.

June 8 & 9, 2013

At the SparHawk Mine

As the day progressed the sky cleared and the gem mining proceeded. It was an awesome day.

On Another Day
I Was the First One There

I arrived at the mine early. I was not sure if I had misheard our meeting time or if Jeff was late. I liked the sense of space, the openness without any other consciousness to interfere. The space felt different than my years of visits with other people around. Thinking minds are so powerful that one can feel others’ thoughts guided by arrows and pre-established pathways. Here with nothing but cliffs and trees, it was just me with a pen and paper. I am not alone but free to see and sense.

I heard a plane take off from the airport several miles away. I heard the wind in the pines and spruce, faint and up high. The cliffs that surround, the rubble that litters, and the rock below are all frozen in time. I’ve seen what this place produces. I’ve seen the crystals loosened and pulled from the white clay. I’ve listened to the people who come for the unveiling. I’ve heard their gasps; I’ve seen their wonder. This moment, on this mountain, may be as close as anyone ever gets to true magic in their earthly existence. – R.H.P.

A Treasure Trove of Gems
Found Under the Road

We know we are lucky. We know that any jeweler in America so close to a buried treasure of gems would be so excited to have treasure so close and to have the opportunity to acquire cut gems and then offer finished jewelry to the public. It would be like a gift from heaven. The crystal shown above weighed 62 carats. The person holding the crystal is Sean Sweeney, who is America’s best tourmaline cutter. He was there that day at the mine. He excavated this gem from under the road leading into the gem mine.

The Cross Maine Tourmaline
SparHawk Collection

Yes, we have over 100 pieces of SparHawk Mint-Green-Teal Maine Tourmaline jewelry on our website. All of our Maine tourmaline was mined in Maine and therefore never has had a tariff. There will never be a tariff or duty imposed on any of our Maine tourmaline gems.

He Didn’t Know It at the Time…

His purchase of the land and this
lost gem mine would make world history.

Jeff bought the land. His original intent was for house lots. His research showed that a hundred years before, it had been a successful gem mine. So successful, it made national news for the tourmaline that had been found there. Others came, searched, and found little-to-nothing. Because he was in the foundation business, he had digging machines, had trucks, and knew about blasting rock and how to move rock. He decided on weekends to do some amateur exploring. He worked on and off for several years. Then he hit a soft place in solid rock that was filled with tourmaline, it was a fine green color with an open c-axis. The c-axis is jeweler talk for an outstanding property that makes the gems shine extra bright. If that was all that he found his discovery would have made the Maine gem mining history books, and his discovery would have been told in stories of legend and lore a hundred years later.
With this initial success, Jeff continued the search. Over the next dozen years he opened gem pocket after gem pocket. We, Cross named his new tourmaline color SparHawk Mint-Green-Teal. The open c-axis allows light to do some truly magical things.

Choose a Piece of Jewelry
From America’s National Treasure

Many Americans are choosing one of our own national gems. We are fortunate to be so close to Maine’s tourmaline mines. The gems are beautiful. The jewelry we create is exquisite and comes with our solid Cross Guarantee for performance and beauty.

Our goal is to make your selection easy and shipping a breeze. We ship to all of America – Fast, Safe, and Free.

Additional Information About Gems
From the SparHawk Tourmaline
Mine in Maine

A. Read the 32-page written story of one gem mining season at the SparHawk mine.

B. See seven videos showing gem mining at the SparHawk tourmaline mine . Running time: over 1/2 hour.

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