![[WCRA Logo - Crystal Specimen]](images/wcra_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
👋 Welcome, Fellow Rockhound!
Greetings and a hearty ROCK ON to all visitors of our humble corner of the World Wide Web! You have stumbled upon the official home page of the Warren County Rockhounds Association, better known to members as the WCRA. We are a small but passionate group of amateur mineral hunters, rock collectors, lapidary enthusiasts, and weekend geologists based in the beautiful rolling hills of Warren County, New Jersey.
Every month (weather permitting — we don't dig in mud, folks!) a group of our members gathers at one of our approved collecting sites across Warren County for a full afternoon of prospecting, swapping stories, and the occasional really good find. We welcome rockhounds of every experience level, from grade-schoolers with their first garden trowel to retired geologists with forty years of field work under their belts. If you love the thump of the pickaxe and the glint of a fresh crystal in the sunlight, you belong with us.
🔍 What is a "Dig Day"?
For our newer visitors — a Dig Day is a half-day group outing where WCRA members assemble at a designated collecting site and spend three to four hours carefully prospecting for specimens. Each dig is led by one of our Senior Field Guides (see our Member Photos page!) who briefs the group on local geology, safety, and what minerals are most likely to turn up that season. We pool finds, share sandwiches, and wrap up around dusk. First-timers always go home with at least a few keepsake specimens — we make sure of it!
📍 Coming Up Next: The May Spring Thaw Dig
Our next scheduled outing is the Spring Thaw Dig, taking place Saturday, May 9th at 2:00 PM sharp. This spring we are heading to Jenny Jump State Forest, where our club holds a longstanding educational collecting permit from the N.J. Division of Parks and Forestry. The spring melt always turns up fresh material that was buried under the winter frost — past May digs at Jenny Jump have produced some of our finest quartz and garnet specimens in club history.
See the Dig Schedule page for meetup details, parking, and the trailhead rendezvous point. First-timers should also read the Tools & Gear page and the Safety page before the outing — Jenny Jump is in working bear country and we take that seriously.
🍵 What You Might Find
Depending on the season, the weather, and a little bit of luck, past digs at our Warren County sites have produced beautiful specimens of:
- Smoky and milky quartz — hand-sized clusters not uncommon
- Almandine garnet — the deep red gem variety, found in schist
- Franklinite and willemite — fluorescent under UV!
- Magnetite and hematite — iron-rich specimens from old mine tailings
- Calcite — including rare pink and honey-colored crystals
- Zincite, rhodonite, and rare earth phosphates — for the lucky few!
For a full field guide to the area's geology, please see our Minerals of the NJ Highlands page.
Our interactive "Mineral of the Month" page has been under construction since Fall 1998. We are officially accepting that it is never going to be finished and are leaving this banner as a tribute to Webmaster Ed, who promised it many times.
— Amy V., co-webmaster
All skill levels welcome. 💙 Bring a friend, bring a kid, bring a picnic!
📧 How to Contact Us
The WCRA does not currently have a fax line (we're working on it!) but you can reach us by electronic mail at wcra.diggers@gmail.com, or by U.S. Postal Service at:
W.C.R.A. — c/o Edward Vanderlan, Secretary
P.O. Box 118
Hope, NJ 07844
We do our best to respond within 2-3 weeks, though our secretary is also a dairy farmer, so please be patient during calving season!
