Eden (Belvidere Mountain)

This location refers to Belvidere Mountain, straddling the towns of Eden and Lowell in northern Vermont — site of one of the largest asbestos mines in North America, worked from 1899 until 1993. The mountain's serpentinite geology is genuinely mineralogically rich: serpentine, chrysotile asbestos, vesuvianite, garnet, epidote, diopside, and calcite are all documented from the site, which is a real and significant locality. But the mine itself is now the subject of active environmental remediation — an estimated 3.5 million cubic yards of mill tailings and roughly 16 million cubic yards of contaminated groundwater are being managed at the site, and recreational access to the mine workings and tailings specifically has been restricted as part of that cleanup. The mountain's summit remains a legitimate hike via the Long Trail, but that is not the same as access to the mineral-bearing mine site.

Belvidere Mountain straddles Eden and Lowell in Lamoille and Orleans Counties, Vermont. The Long Trail is the most common hiking route to the summit and fire tower, with the Eden Crossing parking lot on VT-118 as a trailhead. The Forester's Trail, a secondary route, starts near the old asbestos mine workings.

Not recommended, and likely not permitted. The mine workings and tailings — the actual source of the interesting mineralogy — are the subject of active state/federal environmental remediation, are marked with warning signage, and should not be entered. This is not a site for casual hammering; treat any specimen collecting ambitions here as off the table pending confirmed, official access.

Two separate things are true here and both matter: the general mountain is hikeable via maintained Long Trail routes (Green Mountain Club maintained), but the mine site itself — the actual source of the listed minerals — sits within an active asbestos remediation zone with restricted recreational access, warning signage, and real health hazards from disturbed asbestos fibers and contaminated tailings. A 2008 health scare prompted a 2009 Vermont Department of Health study, which found no elevated illness risk for residential proximity (only for historical workplace exposure) — but that finding is about ambient air risk to nearby residents, not a green light to enter the mine site and disturb tailings. Do not treat this as a rockhounding destination without direct confirmation from Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation on current access rules for the mine area specifically.