Description

A group of small specimens of columnar celestine, remarkable for their provenance. They are from the stratum in Blair Co., Pennsylvania which is the type locality for celestine. The town name usually given as the type locality is Bell’s Mill, Bellwood, and the labels for this specimen group say Tyrone, which is a few kilometres up the road.  These pieces are from the Princeton University Mineralogical Museum and subsequently the John S. White Pennsylvania Collection (labels included), and identified as type locality celestine.

I have discussed the type locality with John and as life would have it, he knows this area very well, as his mother was from Tyrone. The same celestine-bearing formation outcrops along a long stretch that includes Tyrone and Bellwood.