The Where of Mineral Names: Franklinite, Franklin, Hardyston Township, Sussex County, New Jersey.

Franklinite was named by Pierre Berthier (1782-1861), a chemist and mineralogist at École des Mines, Paris, France, in 1819. In about 1848, the mineral rights to the Mine Hill properties were split from the surface ownership into two deeds, one for franklinite ore and the second for zinc[ite] ore. In January 2017, New Jersey State Senators Steven V. Oroho and Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. introduced a bill, NJ S2890, to designate "franklinite" as the official mineral of the state of New Jersey. The published summary of the bill stated that "In a poll conducted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection with several thousand national participants, 96 percent voted in support of Franklinite as the New Jersey State mineral. [Extracted from the article]