I learned about Herkimer diamonds at the Woodstock, NY flea market. There are a couple fantastic gem and rock vendors who travel with their collections to share and sell around the tristate area. This one guy had a table way less polished than the others (I think it was literally set up on the back of his truck) and crystals that looked like they’d been dug up yesterday. “What are these?” I asked. “Diamonds” he said with a wink. He then proceeded to explain the region where they are uniquely bountiful: Herkimer, NY. Still haven’t been, but there are multiple open air “mines” that let you dig for crystals for a small fee. Some have camp grounds. The concept of chipping my own glass like crystal out of the ground sounds like heaven on earth. Can’t wait to go! Ever heard of a Herkimer Diamond?

Super excited to welcome a whopping FOUR new members to the group! WELCOME FELLOW ROCKHOUNDS @Lisa Miller 🪨 @Mihai Paun 🪨 @Jennifer Gilpin 🪨 @Stephanie Zimmerling 🪨 I’m excited you are here! Would love to hear what started your interest in rocks. I know for a fact both Lisa and Jennifer have a ton of experience with geodes. Can’t wait to hear some cool stories. Thanks for joining everybody. This is some exciting stuff.

My name is Lisa and I have been collecting rocks since I can remember! I brought so many rock memories to my classroom over 33 years with so many of my rock stories. I would read Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor to start our rock adventure. I would show my National Geo premade gemstone collections-raw and tumbled. I shared my love of going to the County Fair, not for the food, rides, animals or the fun, but for the Geodes! In the Gem and Mineral Building, in the very back corner of the exhibit sat my old friend with his boxes of Geodes for me to choose from. For a small fee he would saw the geode in front of you and make the big "reveal"! You can imagine how sad I was to learn that he retired before I could introduce my twin grandkids. My best teacher gift was a big box of "rocks"!!