The town of Herkimer, NY has a fun place to dig in the rocks and find a diamond-like gems called Herkimer Diamonds. Herkimer Diamonds are really double-terminated quartz crystals but they are beautiful and look like diamonds. These gemstones are believed to be close to 500 million years old. When we found them they already looked like they were precision cut and have a geometrical shape like a real diamond. That is why they are called the Herkimer Diamond. It was an over-cast day and very humid so we were somewhat uncomfortable while we broke up rocks looking for a diamond. Finally we decided to take a break and on the way back to the car Gene was looking in the rocks along the drive and found one! We decided to eat our lunch and then return to that area to look for rocks like the one we found it in. We found several more but then our luck ran out. We were glad we had some to brag about. We were hot and tired when we were done and for sure ready to quit.
When we left there we drove on to Little Falls where Lock 17 on the Erie Canal is located. The canal was completed in 1825 to connect Lake Erie to the Hudson River for commerce so that people who wanted to move inland could receive goods. In the beginning it was only four feet deep and 40 feet wide and the barges were pulled along by mules. Due to the building of the canal New York City became the main source of commerce and the city began to grow by leaps and bounds. In 1862 the canal depth was increased from 4 to 7 feet so the boats could carry more and heavier cargo. In 1905 plans were made to modernize the canal and the construction took until 1918 At that time it became a barge canal. Today it is used mainly for pleasure craft with a few commercial boats. Of all the locks on the Erie Canal, Lock 17 has the highest lift—40.5 feet. That is over twice the height of most barge canal locks. Lock 17 lifts boats higher than any single lock on the Panama Canal.
