Samson Pit named after Samson
The mine was famous in the 18th century for its finds of rare and exotic minerals, which were sold inter alia through a mineral depot in Clausthal. Especially sought after were the silver minerals pyrargyrite (dark red silver ore), dyscrasite (silver antimony) and pyrostilpnite (feuerblende), the calcite crystals in various forms (paper spar – Papierspat, leaf spar – Blätterspat, cannon spar – Kanonenspat, cube spar – Würfelspat, composite spar – Compositenspat), analcime crystals (Andreasberger Tautropfen), pink apophyllite, scherbenkobalt (native arsenic), ganomatite (Gänsekötigerz) breithauptite, native antimony, chlorargyrite (Buttermilcherz) and others. The very rare mineral samsonite was named after the pit.Museums
In 1950 the Samson Pit Mining Museum opened and, since 2001, the Harzer Roller Canary Museum has been located in the horse gin (Gaipel) at the pithead.
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