Trip to Crystal Grove Diamond Mine & Campground, St. Johnsville, NY to Collect Herkimer Diamonds
Herkimer Diamonds are actually Quartz Crystals that happen to be Doubly-Terminated (have points on both ends) -- this is fairly rare,
even though quartz is one of the most common minerals, and only happens in a few places in the world. One such place is in Herkimer
County, NY, and while a few of us went up there on a collecting trip two years ago, we were quick to jump at the chance to go back when
a couple of other club members decided that the 3-day Labor Day Weekend was too good an opportunity to waste even though we didn't have
more than a few weeks left to plan. So we scrambled to get some people to commit, reserve a couple of campsites, and collect up enough
gear for the trip.
We ended up with 6 club members – Ed, Kirk, Val, Sarah, Brad and Harriet (me) -- twice as many as managed to go two years ago when we planned for months!
Could be the time of year, or just luck, but those of us who went had a pretty good time!
We drove up in two vehicles to save what we could on gas, since we had to go when gas was at its most expensive – we paid up to $3.59/gallon in the middle of the
Adirondacks – and that turned out to be our largest expense of the weekend. We left Friday afternoon, which meant that after the ~6-hour drive we got to the
campground well after dark – but Sarah and I had practiced pitching her big multi-room cabin tent the weekend before, so it wasn’t too bad trying to do it in the dark, and
we had plenty of lanterns to help. Then Brad’s and my tent went up. We were all set up before midnight, but I don’t remember how much before, because I was pretty
tired, so we all just sacked out.
|
Saturday, we got up and had breakfast – ziplock-baggie omelets and toast. Kirk has a new nickname – he is the ToastMeister! Making toast on a camping toaster may
not be rocket science, but it does take practice and attention, and Kirk did it beautifully! Then we paid our digging fees, and headed off for the mines.
|
|
|
There are 3 main digging sites at Crystal Grove, and the owner had told us that the Tears of Wendy mine was producing the best results – but everyone else
was told that too, so there were plenty of people scattered around the “bowl”. We sort of picked an unoccupied area, and set to whackin’ rocks!
|
|
Val and Sarah and I were content to whack small rocks that had already been broken loose from the shelf...
|
|
|
but Kirk went at the shelf looking to break open new pockets, with expert advice from Ed on wedge placement.
|
|
Needless to say, Kirk found more good stuff than we did...
|
|
|
but there was actually a fair amount of druzy quartz to be found in little pockets over many of the rocks, and some calcite and dolomite crystals, too –
so we collected some of them.
|
After heading back to the campsite for lunch, we went back over to the mine site, but it was a warm and sunny afternoon, and Sarah and Val and I decided
to try the “scan the ground” method of looking for Herkimers, and so we climbed up a big pile of rock pushed up by the owner’s backhoe, and sat down
and scanned the ground, picking up anything shiny and sparkly.
|
And it worked! This was easiest for me, since I had my tweezers – I would guess that Sarah at least will have her own for any future trips – but I think we
all found quite a few small sparkly things to stuff through the lids of our plastic tubs for safekeeping. Of course, most of them were pretty small, and when
I got home and cleaned them up and looked at them, many were just broken bits, but I had enough tiny ones to make my pair of “diamond earrings” so I was
happy!
|
|
Sunday, we had a choice to make – spend another day at Crystal Grove, or head up to a garnet mine Ed had some info on, about 2 hours further up into
the Adirondacks. Since Kirk wanted more time at Crystal Grove, he decided to spend the morning collecting there before heading for the garnets, and Ed
stayed with him. The other 4 of us headed out to the garnet mine after breakfast.
We had asked in the office / shop at Crystal Grove, and the owner said if we were going to go up there, we should stop at a certain rock shop (she gave
us a card) and ask the guy there about where we might collect. So we did.
There is an official Garnet Mine Tour, at a mine that only closed in 1983, but the guy said that we’d have better collecting at an older mine that had closed
in 1928, so long as we only took rock hammers and a small bucket – people were technically not supposed to collect there, but no one minded small-time
collectors, they only went after the guys with big sledges and ATVs to haul out large amounts. So after getting his hand-drawn map, with lots of explanation,
we headed off up the mountain, past the end of the paved roads to the end of the dirt road, and then walked up the trail. He said it would be about three
miles – he didn’t mention it was all uphill, and fairly steep! Luckily, it was less than half of that three miles, but we were plenty glad to stop and catch our
breath and look around the top of the mountain.
|
He’d said it was almost like a volcano crater, that the mine had just dug out the top of the mountain leaving a rim, and so it was –
and the rock was all granite / gneiss / something igneous (Bob will tell us) and had these big, red polka-dots all over in them! Garnets!
|
|
|
Unfortunately, they were very fractured, and you couldn’t break them loose of the host rock since they just crumbled out in small pieces --
so we collected some of the small pieces of garnet, and some of the smaller chunks of rock with garnets in them, and then had to carry what
we’d collected down the hill again – and some of us were much more judicious in our selections so we’d not have much to carry, and others
of us – well – were glad to have a shirt to wrap them all up in to carry. But that means I have lots to share, and I’ll bring some to the meeting!
|
We decided to go ahead and do the more commercial Garnet Mine Tour anyway, and as we headed from one to the other, we passed Kirk and Ed
heading the other way, up to the first mine – where, of course, Kirk had a little more luck (and maybe exerted a little more effort) and managed to
find some whole garnet crystals that had weathered out into a soft layer and managed to dig them out – but we didn’t know that until later!
The tour was overpriced and highly commercialized and not very technical and fun anyway, as was the gift shop full of things made with garnet-filled
rock – check their web site at Garnet Mine Tours to see pictures of the mine and shop some of
the items available.
|
And I picked up enough little garnet shards to make a pair of Garnet earrings, too!
|
|
Monday, we packed up the campsite and headed out to Secret Caverns, which Val visited two years ago and has been telling us we need to see ever
since, so we went. Unfortunately, it WAS Labor Day Weekend, and the tour groups were pretty large, and there was a tour bus full of Japanese tourists
whose tour groups had to work their way past ours in narrow passages, but it was pretty spectacular, so that was worthwhile doing too. We had our
final picnic lunch outside the caverns before hitting the road to come home.
All in all, we saw some great stuff, we collected some pretty nice if not world-class stuff, we had great weather – sunny and low-70-degree days, even
if the nights did get a little chillier than expected – and we had a great time! Those of you who couldn’t make it, I hope you can go another time!
updated 29 September 2005
