FIELD TRIPS and quarry OPEN HOUSES

Open house at nearby quarries in Penfield and Walworth are announced to members when we receive notice of the events. 

Club sponsored field trips are organized when we have volunteers that are willing and able to do this.  The trip events shown below are examples of what has been done in the past.  We hope you are inspired and motivated to organize a trip!

An advance headcount is required for field trips, and you must be a member to receive field trip details and participate. 

Examples of Sites and Minerals Found There

Saturday, May 5, Penfield Quarry Open House – 7:00 a.m. to 12.00 noon. 746 Whalen Rd., Penfield, NY 14526

2015 Field Trips

Sat., May 2rd, 6:45am - noon -- Penfield Quarry Open House, 746 Whalen Rd., Penfield, NY. All ages welcome - open to the public! Hard hats (children may wear bicycle helmets), safety glasses, sturdy footware, & long pants required. Expect to find fluorite, calcite, selenite, sphalerite, dolomite, gypsum, galena & fossils.

Saturday Oct. 10 & Sunday October 11-- Walworth Quarry Open House, 7 AM to 2 PM on Saturday; 7:00 to 12:00 noon on Sunday. 1200 Atlantic Ave, Walworth, NY 14568. All ages welcome - open to the public! Hard hats (children may wear bicycle helmets), safety glasses, sturdy footwear, & long pants required. Expect to find dolomite, fluorite, calcite, selenite and massive gypsum, sphalerite and a few fossils. Please arrive early to sign in and for safety talk. Usual safety equipment. Stay well away from the high-walls at all times.

2014 Field Trips

Sat., April 26th -- Sterling Mine Fluorescent Event - Ogdensburg, NJ - Go to sterlinghillsuperdig.org for more info & to register. $20 per person, $1.50/pound of material collected. So far, we have 11 people going, and this field trip is filling up fast, so go to website to register ASAP! 

Sat., May 3rd, 6:45am - noon -- Penfield Quarry Open House, 746 Whalen Rd., Penfield, NY. All ages welcome - open to the public! Hard hats (children may wear bicycle helmets), safety glasses, sturdy footware, & long pants required. Expect to find fluorite, calcite, selenite, sphalerite, dolomite, gypsum, galena & fossils.

Sat. May 10th, 9:00 am 'til whenever. Spring Creek, Alden, NY to collect pyritized nodules & fossils, and septarian nodules ("Turtle Rocks"). 

Sat. May 24th, Quadville, Ontario, Canada pegmatite. AquaRose Rose Quartz Pit and the AquaBeryl Beryl Pit. Dick Phillips, is leading this trip & will be obtaining the permit. All ages welcome, Enhanced NYS Driver's License or Passport needed, Safety Glasses required. There is a fee to collect at each pit, and $2-$5 per pound for the rose quartz, depending on quality. 

2013 Field Trips (partial list)

Wed., April 4th - Thurs., April 5th - Morefield Gem Mine, Amelia, Virginia for amazonite and more. Mine is closed, but club has permission to go in. 

Sat., April 6th, 9:00am - till -- National Limestone Quarry, Mt. Pleasant Mills, Snyder Co., PA. Children allowed. Hard hats (children may wear bicycle helmets), safety glasses, sturdy footware, & long pants required. For strontianite, clear calcite, massive travertine, scant embedded purple fluorite, & green wavellite is also found around the rim. 

Sun., April 7th, 11:00am - till (change to earlier time possible)(pending weather conditions) -- Spring Creek, Alden, NY. For pyritized fossils & nodules. Children welcome. 

Sat., April 27th -- Sterling Mine Fluorescent Event - Ogdensburg, NJ - Go to sterlinghillsuperdig.org for more info & to register. $20 per person, $1.50/# of material collected. So far, we have 11 people going, and this field trip is filling up fast, so go to website to register ASAP! 

Sat., May 4th, 6:45am - noon -- Penfield Quarry Open House, 746 Whalen Rd., Penfield, NY. All ages welcome - open to the public! Hard hats (children may wear bicycle helmets), safety glasses, sturdy footware, & long pants required. Expect to find fluorite, calcite, selenite, sphalerite, dolomite, gypsum, galena & fossils. 

Sun., June23 – Macomb, St. Lawrence Co., NY. – To explore a new site for milky quartz crystals, calcite, and soapstone.

Sat., July 13th - Lockport Lafarge Quarry, Lockport, NY. We won't be able to confirm this trip until the Wednesday before. Age 16 & over, only. Hard hat, safety glasses, sturdy boots & long pants required. Unsure what pit we'll be in, or how much mineralized material will be available to us. Dolomite, selenite, sphalerite, etc.

Sunday, July 21st - Ace of Diamonds for Herkimer "diamonds" quartz crystals. This is a public site where anyone can go, but it's more fun with friends. www.herkimerdiamonds.com. Fossil stromatolites can also be collected at this site.

Saturday July 27 - Sellek Rd. site in St. Lawrence Co. for iron tremolite, dravite tourmaline, and more.

Sun., July 28th - Return to the Town of Macomb collecting site for white quartz crystals in calcite, chalcopyrite & a secondary copper mineral--probably malachite, also mica and graphite flakes. Also the Valentine wollastonite mine dump, which is famous for blue calcite and epidote and pink feldspar rock known as unikite.

2012 Field Trips

Sunday, June 17th, 10:00am - FIELD TRIP to Ilion Gorge & Fayetteville, NY for travertine and ribbon selenite.

Sunday, June 24th, 10:00am - FIELD TRIP to Spring Creek, Alden, NY for pyritized nodules & fossils, and septarian nodules. We'll visit Dick & Jeanne Phillip's rock garden in Tonawanda at 4:00pm. 

Sunday, July 8th - FIELD TRIP to Spring Creek, Alden, NY for pyritized nodules & fossils, and septarian nodules. 

Saturday, August 4th - FIELD TRIP to Lewis Mine near Willsboro, NY for wollastonite studded with diopside and garnet. Drive on Friday, stay overnight to visit quarry 8:00am – ‘til. Well-supervised teenagers allowed. Must have hard hat, safety glasses, sturdy footwear, long pants. 

Saturday, August 18th - FIELD TRIP to Barton Garnet Mine CANCELED. The roadway up to the upper pits where we would have gone has been washed out and no collecting will be allowed there this season.

Saturday, August 18th - FIELD TRIP to the Lafarge Lockport Quarry.

2011 Field Trips

Saturday, April 9, National Limestone Quarry, Mt. Pleasant Mills, PA for clear calcite crystals, strontionite, wavellite, and fluorite veins in rock. 

Sunday, May 1 - Marmora Quarry Field Trip, 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Stirling-Marmora Rd., Marmora, Bancroft, Ontario, Canada. Late arrivals OK. Well-supervised children & power tools allowed. Reflective orange or yellow vest or shirt required. Must have passport or enhanced driver's license. 

Saturday, May 14 – Penfield Quarry Open House. For dolomite, calcite, gypsum, sphalerite, fluorite, and galena. 7:00 a.m. to noon. Penfield quarry on Whalen Road between Atlantic Ave. (Rt 286) and Five-mile Line Road, Penfield.

Saturday & Sunday, October 8 & 9 – Walworth Quarry Open House. Arrive at 6:45 a.m. Off Atlantic Avenue (Rt. 286) east of Penfield and just west of Rt. 350. Entrance on Tiffany Road.

Other Field Trip Sites Not Described Above

Herkimer "Diamond" Mine, Herkimer, NY for quartz crystals.

"Diamond" Acres, Fonda, NY for quartz crystals.

Crystal Grove "Diamond" Mine & Campground, St. Johnsville, NY for quartz crystals.

Bancroft, Ontario, Canada area. 

Marmora Quarry (Aecon Corp.), Stirling-Marmora Rd., Marmora Township, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada.

Barton Garnet Mine, North River, NY and the abandoned Hooper Garnet mine. Garnet, gneiss, feldspar, hornblende. 

Lafarge, NA at Lockport (Quarry) - Minerals usually found there include: Pink-tinged dolomite crystals, calcite crystals, celestine, gypsum (selenite & massive), anhydrite, and marcasite.

Spring Creek, Alden, NY depending on people's preference, for fossils, pyritized fossils & nodules and septarian nodules.

Lewis & St. Lawrence Counties: Tourmalines, titanite, diopside, graphite, blue calcite, and more. Powers farm in Pierrepont  for uvite, quartz & apatite. 

Meckley's Limestone Products, Inc. Quarry in Mandata, PA

National Limestone Quarry, in Mt. Pleasant Mills, Pennsylvania for wavellite, calcite & strontianite.