BETHEL, Maine — After 12 years of permitting, planning, constructing, and collecting, the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum finally opened its doors in 2019 in the town of Bethel.
In the scope of things, 12 years is nothing compared to the age of some of the artifacts housed within it, including the five largest lunar meteorites in the world.
In hindsight, it was also nothing compared to what museum staff, and businesses all around the world, would experience in 2020.
The 15,000-square-foot Maine Mineral & Gem Museum opened in December 2019 in Bethel; displaying more than 100 gemstones, 2,000 minerals and 250 meteorites. Most of the meteorites on display are from asteroids, but some are known to have fallen from the moon.
Those lunar meteorites were sent hurling into space after asteroids hit the moon, creating the craters that dot its landscape. One of the lunar meteorites weighs more than 120 pounds.
The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum has finally reopened again in 2021, after two closures in the last year. First, COVID-19 restrictions closed its doors in March of 2020. After reopening for the summer, a leak in the HVAC system closed the doors again.
"It flooded three floors from the attic all the way to the basement, and while it spared all of the collection - thankfully - it destroyed the casework and everything that displays the collection that we have," explains director, Barbara Barrett. "So we had to close again and we just re-opened in April. So just at the end of April we were able to open the doors after a really long challenging year for everyone."
"It was just like, wow. I remember all of the effort, and it was so worth it. It was so great to see people back here, still limited capacity and we have time ticketing to make sure that we don’t have too many people and everyone can safely social distance, but it’s a joy to be able to actually be open again," says Barrett.
To learn more about the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum's hours and restrictions, click here.