I just returned from a business trip to Syracuse a few days ago, and on the one day I got off work early, I went to the mines in Herkimer. Unfortunately I got there a little after 5:00 and both closed at 5:00. I noticed the Mohawk River along the road on the way there, and knowing nothing at all about Herkimer Diamonds, I decided to go one of the pull offs by the river to see if I could find anything interesting, like a diamond. It turns out that the first big pull off leaving the mines happens to be where they dump the tailings from the mines. It is a public fishing area. I didn't know it at first, but those rocks were entirely different than the rocks by the water. I spent about 30 min going through those rocks and found and found four of them that had diamonds sticking out of them. I hope this was legal to do. I thought about it as I was looking for rocks, so I only brought a few home. I probably could have filled my pickup, but I only picked up a few. The row of mine rocks was at least 100 yards long, and there was a bunch of them. Best part is that this was free. I get to go back in a few weeks, so if I go back to the river, I may try to find a LEO and ask if it's ok to look there.
