Herkimer Diamonds and Fossils along the Mohawk

You are probably wondering what sort of "diamonds" are found along the Mohawk River in New York.  Well, they are actually quartz crystals which form in an unusual habit along  a thirty-mile stretch of mostly river front property in upstate New York.  Herkimer diamonds are known the world over for their unusual clarity and form.  They are doubly-terminated, eighteen-faceted brilliant quartz crystals found in a thick layer of vuggy dolostone in and near Herkimer County, New York.  They follow this same structure whether they are as small as the head of a pin or as big as your fist (or even bigger).  They form clusters, scepters, enhydros, and occasionally are found as citrine or smoky---but most usually, they look like a rainbow flashing in the sun.  In general, the smaller they are the more perfect they are and more likely to be devoid of inclusions like anthraxolite.

There are several fee-dig mines located in the area, two of which are located along the West Canada Creek which joins the Mohawk River a few miles downstream. These two, the Herkimer Diamond Development Co., and the Ace of Diamonds Mine, were featured on the Cash and Treasures Show a couple of seasons ago, with Kirsten Gum as the star of the show.  They both produce a LOT of Herkimers, but I chose the Ace of Diamonds for my visit as they have a lot more collecting area open to the public.  They have five different areas available to choose from, running up the hill for about 1/4 of a mile.  The first pit at the bottom of the hill is where the commercial diggers have their leased areas, marked by blue or tan tarps.  The public can collect in this pit as long as they stay out of the marked areas.  This first pit contains  a wall of  really dense and hard layers of dolostone, requiring a lot of hammering and a couple of blisters to get the rock to crack open.  We were told by the mine owner that the rock at the last pit at the top of the road was softer and might be a better choice if we didn't want to work so hard.  We decided to check out the "softer" rock area first, and managed to collect several small crystals by walking around and looking for loose diamonds that had been dislodged and overlooked  by "rock crackers".   As it had rained the day before, the newly rain-washed crystals really sparkled when the sun decided to peek out.  We did crack some rocks too, and found several specimens in matrix this way. 

After a couple of hours, we decided that we should go back down to the commercial pit and try our luck there too.  I found a nice 3/4 inch Herkimer right away in a rain puddle, but not much after that.  As I was walking around, I heard someone throwing rocks and realized that one of the commercial diggers was hard at work in his pit.  I asked him if he was having any luck--------he said he was mainly just working hard!   Well, a few minutes later,  we met up with him in the onsite rock shop where he was showing the mine owner one of his "finds" for the day, still with the mud on it.  It was a gorgeous fist-sized cluster with large diamonds on one side and smaller, iron-stained diamonds on the other side.  He graciously allowed me to photograph him and his cluster, and introduced himself as  Daniel Webster, of Norway, New York.  He sells his Herkimers at rock shows such as the famous Jan/Feb show held at Quartzsite, AZ every year.  The nice folks who own the mine and the store have beautiful and reasonably priced Herkimer jewelry, specimens in matrix, and many sizes of Herkimers available for purchase, if you would like a few more of those "diamonds" to take home.  They also have camping spots available if you want to come and spend several days collecting, or visiting the area.

We made another stop for fossils about 6 miles from the Ace of Diamond Mine, on our way back to Herkimer.  We were checking out the rocks  under a bridge which spans the West Canada Creek.  There are at least four bridges  along Route 28 between Middleville and Herkimer, maybe even more than four!  Just take your pick of bridges, or stop at one of the fishing access sites between the bridges, and check out the river rock.  There are crinoid stems, brachiopods, clams, and quite a few other fossils that  I am not familiar with.  New York is well known for its great fossils, with 6 to 8 inch trilobites among the group.  Just about any creek or waterway will yield fossiliferous rock.  However, as we were there in June, the water flow in these creeks and rivers was still too swift to go wading.  If you wait for fall when things are at their driest, you should be able to access the better, easier shale which will split more easily than those boulders under the bridges.  I understand that another possibility for easy collecting is in the railroad cuts around Cherry Valley and Sharon Springs, or in exposed banks next to parking lots and buildings.  Wherever you look, you will find fossils that have weathered out and are loose on the ground in addition to the ones exposed in the split rock. 

We sure did have a great time, as always!   Hope you do too, if you can make the trip to this beautiful, historic area.  Happy collecting!

by Marilee J. Strech