Herkimer Diamond Mine

Today we sought our fortunes with hammers and eyewear in hand at the Herkimer Diamond Mines. We stayed at the KOA which owns the mines which made our adventure very convenient. The Herkimer diamond is not actually a diamond but rather a really nice quartz crystal that is doubly terminated. Some of the A grade crystals were extremely beautiful. In our hacking, chipping, impaling, scattering rocks we only found a couple of extremely small (barely seen with good eyes) crystals, but the cathartic value of pounding on rocks with abandon was priceless! After about 45 min of attempting to win the diamond lottery we decided we had gotten sweaty and dirty enough and that the people that were serious rockhounds with their canopies, 5 gallon buckets, chisels, and enough equipment and supplies to last the day were crazy, we went into the gift shop. We contemplated souvenir diamonds, but they were actually quite pricey so we decided to skip it. Everyone had a good time. All of the girls were channeling their mother's "manly" ways! I was so proud!