Rockhounding New York: A Guide To The State's Best Rockhounding Sites

by Robert Beard

Overview

With this informative guide, you can explore the mineral-rich state of New York, from the beaches to the mountains. It describes the states' best rockhounding sites and covers popular and commercial sites as well as numerous little-known areas. This handy guide also describes how to collect specimens, includes maps and directions to each site, and lists rockhound clubs in the state. Rockhounding New York offers a complete introduction to this many-faceted hobby and is an invaluable sourcebook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493087303
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/03/2025
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Beard is a geologist and has collected rocks for over 30 years. In his early days of rock collecting, fellow geologists said that he would get over the excitement from finding an interesting rock, but that never happened. He majored in geology at California State University, Chico and his first rock collecting trips focused on the northern Sierra Nevada and southern California desert. He received his B.A. in geology, with a minor in mathematics from CSUC in 1983. He then attended the University of New Mexico as a graduate student in geology, and spent considerable time looking for rocks in New Mexico's mountains and deserts. He worked briefly for a mining company as part of an exploration team during his first summer in New Mexico, and got to see many different types of mineral deposits and geologic terrains, and developed a keen understanding minerals and how to find them. He received his M.S. degree in geology from UNM in 1987, at a time when the mining and oil industries were flat on their backs, but the environmental cleanup industry was just getting started. In 1988 he moved to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area to pursue a career as an environmental geologist. Since then he has remained alert for opportunities to see geology and collect rocks, minerals, and fossils, as he was taught that the best geologist is the one that has the most rocks. He has collected rocks throughout most regions of the United States and parts of the Caribbean, and the past few years he was focused on finding new collecting sites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is a Contributing Editor to Rock & Gem magazine, and has written from Rock & Gem since 1993. He also speaks Spanish, which has been a very useful skill for geology, especially when working in Spanish-speaking environments. He currently lives in Harrisburg, PA with his wife, Rosalina, and his two children, Daniel and Roberta.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Rockhounding Basics 4

New York Geology 10

New York Natural Resources 14

How to Use This Guide 17

Map Legend 20

Atlantic Coastal Plain

1 Orient Point Beach Quartz Pebbles 21

2 Rocky Point Beach Quartz Pebbles 24

3 Lloyd Neck Cliffs Indian Paint Pots 26

Manhattan Prong

4 Staten Island Ferry Serpentine and Gneiss 29

5 Staten Island Todt Hill Serpentine 33

6 Inwood Park Shoreline Rocks 36

7 Valhalla-Kensico Dam Quarry Orange Gneiss 39

Hudson Highlands

8 Hogencamp Iron Mine 42

9 Hasenclever Iron Mine 45

10 Bear Mountain Highway 6 Minerals 47

11 Hudson Railroad Cut Calcite 50

12 Philips Mine Sulfides 52

13 Mount Taurus Quarry 54

14 Amity-Pine Island Calcite 56

Taconic Mountains

15 Millerton Iron Mine Pond Blue Slag 59

16 Weed Mines Limonite and Hematite 62

17 South Bay Roadside Quarry Ripple Marks 64

18 Pulpit Point Road Graphite Boulders 67

Hudson-Mohawk Lowlands

19 Highland Mills Fossils 59

20 Wurtsboro Lead Mines 72

21 Ellenville Pyrite and Quartz 75

22 Kingston Highway 32 Calcite Crystals 77

23 Kingston Highway 209 Fossils 80

24 Catskill Highway 23 Taconic Unconformity 82

25 Stark's Knob Pillow Basalts and Pyrite 84

26 Lester Park Stromatolites 87

27 Canajoharie Creek Fossils 89

28 Diamond Acres Herkimer Diamonds 92

29 Crystal Grove Herkimer Diamonds 95

30 Herkimer Diamond Mines 97

31 Ace of Diamonds Mine 101

32 Newville Nowadaga Creek Graptolites and Trilobites 103

33 Dion Jerusalem Hill Road Orange Travertine 105

34 Forge Hollow Travertine 107

Adirondack Mountains

35 Batchellerville Pegmatites 109

36 Barton Mines Garnet 112

37 Hooper Mine Garnets 115

38 Speculator Highway 30 Diopside and Garnet 117

39 Brant Lake Roadcut Quartz Crystals 119

40 Rock Pond Mine Sulfides 122

41 Ironville Blue and Green Slag 124

42 Schroon Lake Roadcut Minerals 127

43 Minerva Railroad Cut Light Blue Calcite 129

44 Tahawus Mine Titaniferous Magnetite 131

45 Blue Ridge Labradorite 134

46 Newcomb Highway 28 Calcite with Graphite 136

47 Long Lake Highway 30 Fluorite and Calcite 138

48 Roaring Brook Falls Labradorite 140

49 Cascade Lakes Calcite and Diopside 142

50 Lewis Mine Entrance Wollastonite 144

51 Willsboro Dump Road Wollastonite, Garnet, and Diopside 146

52 Lyon Mountain Magnetite 148

53 Standish Slag 152

54 Pierrepont Dillabough Road Hematite 155

55 West Pierrepont Selleck Road Tremolite 158

56 Pyrites Pyrite 160

57 Richville Rock Island Roadcut Calcite 162

58 Edwards Campbell Road Calcite 164

59 Star Lake Benson Mines Minerals 166

60 Fine Roadcut Titanite, Pyroxene, and Purple Fluorite 168

61 Hailesboro Banded Marble Road Cut 170

62 Balmat Sylvia Lake Talc 172

63 Talcville Tremolite and Talc 174

64 Harrisville Mine Blue Calcite and Wollastonite 176

65 Oxbow Road Calcite 178

66 Yellow Lake Roadcut Calcite 180

Tug Hill Plateau

67 Whetstone Gulf Fossils 182

68 Whittaker Falls Brachiopods 185

Allegheny Plateau

69 Thacher Park Zoophycos and Brachiopods 188

70 Schoharie Rickard Road Fossils 192

71 North Blenheim Schoharie Creek Fossils 194

72 Leesville Highway 20 Fossils 196

73 Cherry Valley Highway 20 Corals 198

74 Fly Creek/Cooperstown Highway 28 Fossils 200

75 Brookfield Beaver Creek Road Fossils 202

76 Hamilton Briggs Road Quarry Fossils 205

77 Hubbardsville Cole Hill Road Fossils 207

78 Morrisville Swamp Road Fossils 209

79 Chittenango Falls Calcite and Celestite 211

80 Borodino Highway 41 Fossils 214

81 Pompey Center Highway 20 Fossils 216

82 Marcellus Shale Type Section and Concretions 218

83 Tully 1-81 and Highway 80 Fossils 221

84 Hoxie Gorge Fossils 223

85 Vestal Route 26 Fossils 225

86 Chemung Narrows Former Highway 17 Fossils 228

87 Waverly Old Highway 34 Rugose Corals 230

88 Portageville Highway 436 Road Aggregate Fossils 232

89 Fall Brook Falls Brachiopods and Corals 235

90 East Bethany Francis Road Railroad Cut Fossils 237

91 Alden Spring Creek Trilobites and Concretions 239

92 Chestnut Ridge Park Eternal Flame 242

93 Chautauqua Creek-Lyons Road Fossils 244

Ontario Lowlands

94 Ontario Furnaceville Hematite 247

95 Genesee River Gorge Hematite 251

Erie Lowlands

96 Penn Dixie Site Trilobites 254

97 South Branch Smokes Creek Fossils 258

98 Eighteen Mile Creek Fossils 260

References Cited 263

Index 271

About the Author 278