Herkimer Diamonds In Spades

Collectors Rake in Water-Clear New York Quartz Crystals

- Jim Landon

Back in 1970, when I was a fresh graduate from a teachers college in Nebraska, I landed my first teaching position in Maspeth, Queens, New York. During the two years I taught there, I had two opportunities to travel to upstate New York and dig for Herkimer diamonds. It was my introduction to the rockhounding hobby, which continues to fill my life with unending adventures and discoveries.

My forays took me to what is still a popular fee-collecting site, called the Ace of Diamonds (www.Herkimerdiamonds.com). is collecting locality outside of Herkimer, New York, lies on the west end of the Little Falls dolomite formation. It has all of the amenities a rockhound would need to successfully dig for and collect these beautiful, doubly terminated quartz crystals.

During the two weekends that I dug at their place, I was fortunate to be able to uncover two large pockets of crystals. Both were nearly half full of wet, sticky, gray, decomposed dolostone clay. Pieces of the pocket wall with large crystals had detached from the ceiling and could be seen partially embedded in the clay.

Removing the clay and crystal contents from the cavity was like trying to scoop putty. The tips of my bare fingers suffered numerous cuts from sharp crystal shards and the rough dolomite and druzy crystal crust that formed the inner walls of the pockets. I guess a blood sacrifice is of little consequence for the bounty of crystals that came out of those two pockets.

When the pocket clay was screened, I found that it contained hundreds of smaller, extremely bright and clear crystals. I still have a scar on the tip of my nose and a chipped front tooth as a reminder of what it was like to get hit in the face with a broken chisel. That was back when I was young and dumb.