The Mine

Mining for Herkimer Diamonds is an outdoor activity enjoyed by people of all ages. Prospector tools are available for rent or for sale. They are desirable, but much can be accomplished with small hammers and garden tools. Visitors should come in clothing suitable for digging in the earth. We also have a 150 foot long sluice (water trough) available, allowing you to sift for crystals using our sluice kit. 

If you like, bring your lunch and rest in our picnic area. The

Rock Shop keeps cold soda, ice cream, candy, etc., available for a quick snack.

 ANNOUNCEMENT:

After 2 long years of litigation, we have a VERY important announcement for our customers. We are happy to announce that some of the appeals in our court case have been decided and the Court ruled that the preliminary injunction that has been stopping us from commercially mining for the past 2 years while the court case is pending was improperly issued. This means that effective immediately we can resume using our mining equipment, stirring the tailings piles, and adding fresh material to the tourist mining area! The restrictions on the type of customers allowed in the tourist mining area and the prohibition on tourists mining in-place bedrock have also been eliminated. The ropes in the upper tourist mining area have been removed and the ropes in the lower tourist mining area will be removed once the prior claimholders have been notified of their ability to return. Essentially, our mine is being allowed to return to pre-litigation normal. 

With that being said, please keep in mind that our litigation is still ongoing and the ultimate future of our mine remains uncertain. Once the remaining appeals are decided it is expected that the mine will be either sold at public auction or physically divided up between the current landowners, unless a settlement agreement is reached between the parties (our appeal seeking to buy the mine using an appraised value outside of an auction setting was not successful). Therefore, our GoFundMe remains active and there is no better time than the present to plan your visit to our mine as we do not know what the future holds for us. In addition, please keep in mind that generating fresh material to add to the tourist mining area is not an instantaneous process…fresh tailings are a by-product of our commercial mining and it will take a bit of time for us to adjust and return to normal, especially without beloved mine owner Ted Smith here to run our heavy equipment. Once we are ready to add fresh tailings to the tourist piles, we will make another announcement, which we expect will also include a change to our current daily admission ticket fee.

As always, we would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support of our business. We look forward to greeting you all as we work to return our mine to its former glory! Please share this exciting news far and wide. Thank you!