Herkimer Mountain - Herkimer Diamond / Quartz Digging

Dates:

Type of trip:  Herkimer Diamond / quartz digging

Dates:  Sat May 4 and Sun May 5 (dig mid morning till dark, both days)

Times:  all day each day (exacts will be on Flyer)

Location:  Area 55 site property in Mohawk, NY (more details will be in Flyer)

Attendance:  60 people total MAX. (NoJMS and FM-NJ)

Ages allowed:  8 y.o. and up; kids 13 y.o. and under must ALWAYS be in close contact with and supervised by parents

FEES:  $100 per day, kids 8-15yo - $50 per day

 

*** CASH ONLY, PAY THE DAY OF ***

BRING YOUR OWN FOOD / DRINKS - NO FOOD PROVIDED (will be reminder in Flyer)

Ledge / tailings / easy digging all available.

Fee: $100 per day, kids 8-15yo - $50 per day

Safety Information: Safety / Steel Tip or Composite Rubber boots, safety goggles, work gloves for BOTH quarries. Hard Hat not required

Post Event Write-Up:

Attendees:  Groundhog Dave, Elizabeth and Luca Prendini; Dave "Mailman" Mailman, Yu Lin, John Montgomery, Gayle Weigand, Ken and Ofelia Napolitano, Brian Lally, Christine Skubish, LaRonda Davis

We had an excellent weekend of digging once again up at the newly christened Herkimer Mountain site in Mohawk / Fonda, NY.  CLub folks had an option of either Saturday or Sunday to dig, or both days, and folks selected the gamut of options.  To sweeten the pot, co-owner Donna alerted us of an offered Machine Dig for Sat 26th, which was their very first effort of this type since opening to the public in early summer.  Member Brian Lally opted for the Machine dig (and also dug regular on Sunday); rest of the members did regular digs. 

The 4 hour Machine Dig wound up being underwhelming overall, however it was their first effort of this type.  However, on the flipside of that, the regular club attendees were allowed to dig literally right on the perimeter of the ropes / sectioned off area with the excavator; so there was always a potential of "cross-over" finds resulting from the excavating.  In other more established Herkimer sites, a Machine Dig would have been completely isolated from any "normal" digging activity. 

The regular digging proved much more productive than the machine dig, and was, as always, offered in more areas of the site (ledge work area; dirt digging / tailings, other digging areas).  THe most phenomenal finds of the day (Saturday) were by far, 2 bowling ball - sized multi-Herkimer clusters fully skeletal-ized.  They were unearthed about an hour apart, 1 before the other, by a middle aged couple (not club members).  Everyone was in awe, especially the owners, who evaluated each piece at over $ 10,000. 

Notable Club finds included Ken and Ofelia Napolitano finding several nice sized Herk clusters when they opted to try digging near the couple who unearthed the 2 unbelievable pieces.  Groundhog found several 2 - 3 inch skeletal Herkimers (double terminated) and smaller fragments.  Yu Lin also found a number of 2 - 3 inch Herks (some double term) and many smaller Herks and fragments.  Luca Prendini found a few nuce druzy Quartz pieces i the ledge area and a few smaller Herks in the woods area.  

All in all, a great trip, despite a few hiccups early on.