Where to Find Jasper in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has 7 mapped collecting spots that report jasper, spread across 6 counties. The largest share sits in Essex County with 2 spots. 6 of the spots are on land mapped as publicly accessible.
Map of 7 jasper collecting spots in Massachusetts
Standout jasper spots in Massachusetts
Hand-picked from the full list below, with the reason each one earns a trip.
Sandwich
Barnstable County
The Cape Cod Bay beaches at Sandwich sit at the southern end of the Massachusetts Bay jasper belt, where glacial outwash gravels deliver red and yellow jasper, often veined with green epidote.
Nahant
Essex County
Nahant's rocky shore exposes the Nahant gabbro and diabase, a dark intrusive rock cut by veins and vesicles that carry jasper, epidote, prehnite, datolite, and chalcedony, documented here since the nineteenth century.
Deerfield River
Franklin County
The lower Deerfield River is the best known site in Massachusetts for agate, jasper, and chalcedony, eroded from the Deerfield basalt and other Triassic-Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Connecticut Valley rift and concentrated in the river's gravel bars.
Chester
Hampden County
The Chester emery mines worked one of the few commercial emery deposits (corundum with magnetite) in the United States, mined from the 1860s for abrasives.
Cohasset
Norfolk County
Cohasset's rugged shoreline is one of the classic South Shore localities for jasper and epidote, weathered from the volcanic and intrusive rocks of the Boston-area terrane and rolled smooth in the beach gravels.
Marshfield
Plymouth County
Marshfield's beaches lie along the Massachusetts Bay jasper belt, where glacial gravels shed red and yellow jasper, epidote, and iron-rich feldspars onto the shore.
Best counties for jasper in Massachusetts
Ranked by the number of mapped jasper spots. County links open the full rockhounding page for that county.
Every jasper spot we track in Massachusetts
Sorted by county. Coordinates open in Google Maps.
| Spot | County | Minerals | Coordinates | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SandwichPhillips Road | Barnstable County | 41.7840, -70.5054 | Public | |
| Nahant | Essex County | 42.4225, -70.9127 | Permission | |
| RowleyBob Merry Lane | Essex County | 42.7167, -70.9211 | Public | |
| Deerfield RiverHoosac Road | Franklin County | 42.5262, -72.6452 | Public | |
| ChesterHampden Street | Hampden County | 42.2790, -72.9884 | Public | |
| CohassetJerusalem Road | Norfolk County | 42.2605, -70.8102 | Public | |
| MarshfieldPorter Street | Plymouth County | 42.1141, -70.6695 | Public |
Before you go
Read the jasper identification guide so you know what a keeper looks like in the field: Jasper in the encyclopedia.
Jasper in Massachusetts FAQ
Where can you find jasper in Massachusetts?+
How many jasper spots are mapped in Massachusetts?+
Is it legal to collect jasper in Massachusetts?+
Where else to find jasper
More minerals to hunt in Massachusetts
Hunt jasper in Massachusetts with the map in your pocket
RockHoundR puts these spots on an offline map with BLM and Forest Service overlays, geology layers, and a log for your finds.
