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Post by Alice on May 7, 2005 21:26:43 GMT -5
Got back from our trip last night. We went to the Crystal Grove in St. Johnsville, NY Then we went to Medina NY, to go see thomas the tank engine (not pictured) Here's what a Herkimer Diamond "mine" looks like (it's more like a pit).... I have no idea who the people in the first picture are. They were there when we got there.  Hubby and our youngest son  My oldest picking rocks of all kinds  Our oldest (didn't want his picture taken) holding up one of many diamonds he found.  Here's a few of the better ones we found  Hope you enjoyed the pictures, Thanks for looking. Alice |
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Post by Noosh9057 on May 7, 2005 22:06:20 GMT -5
Hay thay look great!!!!!!!!!  |
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Post by Cher on May 7, 2005 22:21:41 GMT -5
Looks like you guys had a great time. Glad you found a few nice ones.
Cher
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Post by cookie3rocks on May 7, 2005 22:34:03 GMT -5
Wow, fun fun fun! That's my kind of family vacation. "C'mon, lets go dig in the dirt and find DIAMONDS (sorta  ) My husband and I went to a sapphire mine on vacation in NC last year and our best find was a (I think) 200+ carat sapphire that Doc is currently faceting. It should be interesting What are you going to do with your diamonds? cookie |
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Post by sandsman1 on May 7, 2005 23:28:03 GMT -5
hey alice looks like you all had a great day --- and the stones look great it musta been alotta fun im sure
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Post by nepherite on May 8, 2005 1:28:00 GMT -5
Wow they look like real diamonds, whats the difference between them ? Looks like you all had a great time !
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Post by krazydiamond on May 8, 2005 8:14:02 GMT -5
looks like you had some good luck there, Alice, hope you had fun!
KD
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Debs
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2005
Posts: 1,252
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Post by Debs on May 8, 2005 8:25:40 GMT -5
That looks like it would have been such a fun adventure. Lucky you! It looks like you also found some really neat diamonds.
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Post by Fidalgo Island Rock hound on May 8, 2005 11:42:26 GMT -5
Wow! Looks like you had lot of fun and look at those diamonds! That's the kind of rock hunting trip I'd like to go on. ;D
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Post by connrock on May 8, 2005 12:05:16 GMT -5
I'm glad to see you all had a good time Alice.
And you didn't get skunked either!
Did you break rocks or just look on the surface?
The Herks you have in your photo look very impressive.
Thanks for sharing ,,,,,
Tom
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Post by Alice on May 8, 2005 20:32:33 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. My youngest seemed to have the most fun out of the family. He just spent the day throwing rocks into the little pools of water in the middle of the pit. My oldest was very excited when we arrived. He jumped out of the car with his pail and started searching right away. Then after about 3 minutes of looking for rocks (yes, 3 minutes), he was all set and ready to go home after a 5 hour drive  There was no way we were going to go home after 3 minutes after arriving, so he ended up just sitting there for several hours, being his usual party pooper self. I had a lot of fun. It took me a while to know what to look for, but towards the end of the day I had it all figured out. Too bad the place was closing down by the time that happened. But I did find a lot of chips, broken herkimers, and orange colored ones (enough to fill half of my tupperware container). I suggested that we head back the same way so we could dig some more after we finished up in Medina, but hubby said "there's no way I'm doing that again". So that answered my question whether or not he he enjoyed himself. Maybe I'll take the kids there again over the summer. Even if my oldest decides to just sit there bummed out.
nepherite, Herkimer Diamonds are quartz, diamonds are carbon. also, I'm not 100% sure, but I think diamonds in the rough are not pointed like the herkimers.
Cookie, I have no clue what my son plans on doing with all of them, but I'm keeping the nicer ones for now (afterall, I'm the one that found them while he just sat there watching). I have no plans for the nicer ones, other then show them off to people
Connrock We just dug with regular garden tools. I think they have a back hoe come in every so often to break up rock for tourists, and leave mounds of rock and mud in the middle of the pit for people to pick through. I found the best diamonds were mixed in with mud rather then in the rocks. There were some people there that were trying to split rocks. They seemed to be getting nowhere. |
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Post by rockyraccoon on May 8, 2005 22:34:11 GMT -5
looks like fun to me - nice finds too!
kim
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on May 9, 2005 10:55:24 GMT -5
Looks like the trip was a success! the orange Diamonds can be cleaned with some kind of strong acid (can't remeber the recipe) congrats on a cool trip!
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) My husband and I went to a sapphire mine on vacation in NC last year and our best find was a (I think) 200+ carat sapphire that Doc is currently faceting. It should be interesting 
There was no way we were going to go home after 3 minutes after arriving, so he ended up just sitting there for several hours, being his usual party pooper self.
