The Gouverneur Museum is very proud to house an extensive collection of local minerals. Some of these are very rare, some are only found here in the Gouverneur area. The area is well known to mineral collectors for the amazing range of specimens available. The cases and shelves in the basement of the museum are filled with some of these rare specimens.

​

The St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce website provides an insight on the geological reason for this abundance of rare minerals found in our area.

​

"The abundance and variety of minerals are chiefly due to the presence of ancient crystalline rocks. The wedge shaped county opens northwest toward the St. Lawrence River and a thin covering of sedimentary rocks. The southern and northwestern portions are underlain by crystalline, igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age."

​

"The exposed gray granites along State Highway 11 between Antwerp and Gouverneur have uranium-lead ages of 1.2 billion years. The cream colored marbles intruded by the granites are even older.... Gouverneur became known as 'Marble City,' thanks to buildings of cream colored marble from local quarries."

 

"These rocks are part of the mineral rich Canadian Shield and the Grenville Province which extends from Labrador to southwestern Ontario. The province extends into New York State in the Thousand Islands and includes the Adirondack Mountains."