Diamond Point Quartz Crystal Collection Area
Forest Service site for collecting Payson diamonds, clear double-pointed quartz
- What you do
- Collect loose crystals from the soil and weathered rock
- What people find
- Clear quartz crystals, many pointed at both ends
- Where
- Diamond Rim, Tonto National Forest, north-east of Payson
- Fee or permit
- None for small-scale personal collecting
- Rules
- Stay inside the signed collecting area; there are mining claims nearby
- Managed by
- Tonto National Forest
Public area set aside for recreational collecting
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: Year-round.
Make a weekend of it
28 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.
About Diamond Point Quartz Crystal Collection Area
Diamond Point is a crystal collecting site set aside by the Tonto National Forest on Diamond Rim, in the pine country north-east of Payson. The crystals people come for are called Payson diamonds, or Herkimer diamonds, but they are not diamonds: they are very clear quartz.
The Forest Service explains how they got there. Diamond Rim is a stack of rocks that tells a long story: 1.7-billion-year-old granite at the bottom, then sandstone laid down on an ancient shoreline about 530 million years ago, separated from the granite by a gap of more than a billion years. Above them sits the Martin Formation, limestone and dolomite about 370 million years old. While these rocks were still deep underground, groundwater dissolved cavities in them, and quartz crystals grew inside, free to form perfect shapes. Many grew points at both ends, which mineralogists call doubly terminated. Weathering has since freed them, so many lie loose in the soil.
Small-scale collecting for personal use needs no fee and no permit. Stay inside the signed collecting area: there are mining claims nearby, and outside the site the rules change.
Look for the glint of a clear crystal on the ground after rain has washed the soil, and check the loose debris around weathered limestone. The Martin Formation and the Redwall Limestone above it also hold fossils of ancient sea creatures, a reminder that this high country was once a sea floor.
Payson is the base for the trip, and the local Payson Rimstones Rock Club runs regular field trips in the area.
Clubs and places nearby
- Payson Rimstones Rock ClubClub · 10 mi
- Sedona Gem and Mineral ClubClub · 52 mi
- Mingus Gem and Mineral ClubClub · 56 mi
- American Gold Prospecting AdventuresPay-to-dig · 56 mi
- Daisy Mountain Rock and Mineral ClubClub · 63 mi
- White Mountain Gem and Mineral ClubClub · 65 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- Copper Canyon Lapidary & JewelryOnline shop · 50 mi
- Rare Earth GalleryShop · 55 mi
- Mammoth Mine Rock ShopShop · 62 mi
- Flagstaff Rock ShopShop · 67 mi
Access
From Payson take SR 260 east to the Control Road (Forest Road 64), head west toward the Diamond Point Summer Homes, then turn south on Forest Road 65 toward Diamond Point. Watch the west side of the road for the collection area signs. Dirt road; the last stretch up to the lookout tower is gated.
Technique
Small hand tools only, such as a garden trowel, a spade or a short-handled pick. Keep each hole no bigger than 4 x 4 x 8 inches, about the size of a 32-ounce water bottle, and fill it back in with the soil you dug out. Look for glassy points in the loose soil and in broken limestone. Personal collection only: commercial collecting is not allowed.