BMC members digging
BMC members field collecting during a field trip to Maine

The club sponsors a dozen or more field trips every year for members to field collect mineral specimens. We visit every state in New England, as well as New York, and sometimes beyond, as far away as Nova Scotia and Tucson, AZ!

Herkimer Diamond found by a BMC member

In addition, the club has a Herkimer Diamond claim in Montgomery County, NY, and members are allowed to collect there independently or with our periodic official club-sponsored field trips to the claim.

In the dolostone bedrock where our claim is located, you can find pockets of unique free-floating quartz crystals called Herkimer Diamonds. If you sift the soil there, many of them are tiny, like most actual diamonds, but some are like the one pictured at left. If you crack your way down far enough into the rock, the crystals can be even larger.