Cape May Diamonds
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Cape May Diamonds
Cape May diamonds (sometimes capitalized "Diamonds") are quartz pebbles found on the beaches of Cape May Point, New Jersey. The pebbles are sometimes collected, cut and polished to resemble diamonds, then sold locally as souvenirs. Cape May diamonds are usually collected by beach combing and are most abundant at Higbee (sometimes, Higby's) and Sunset beaches in Cape May. Cape May diamonds range in size from the finest sand to a "Cape May diamond" found in New Castle, Delaware in 1866. In the 1960s a small intact quartz crystal was found at Sunset Beach which showed almost no signs of rounding by erosion. This dispelled some early myths of their source which included a large boulder of quartz offshore. Origin Cape May diamonds are actually pieces of quartz washed down, and worn smooth in the process, from the upper Delaware River. Apocryphally, the trip takes thousands of years. However, geologists suggest the pebbles are local in origin, washing out of nearby Pleistocene grave ...
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Cape May Diamonds
Cape May diamonds (sometimes capitalized "Diamonds") are quartz pebbles found on the beaches of Cape May Point, New Jersey. The pebbles are sometimes collected, cut and polished to resemble diamonds, then sold locally as souvenirs. Cape May diamonds are usually collected by beach combing and are most abundant at Higbee (sometimes, Higby's) and Sunset beaches in Cape May. Cape May diamonds range in size from the finest sand to a "Cape May diamond" found in New Castle, Delaware in 1866. In the 1960s a small intact quartz crystal was found at Sunset Beach which showed almost no signs of rounding by erosion. This dispelled some early myths of their source which included a large boulder of quartz offshore. Origin Cape May diamonds are actually pieces of quartz washed down, and worn smooth in the process, from the upper Delaware River. Apocryphally, the trip takes thousands of years. However, geologists suggest the pebbles are local in origin, washing out of nearby Pleistocene grave ...
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Quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO2. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. Quartz exists in two forms, the normal α-quartz and the high-temperature β-quartz, both of which are chiral. The transformation from α-quartz to β-quartz takes place abruptly at . Since the transformation is accompanied by a significant change in volume, it can easily induce microfracturing of ceramics or rocks passing through this temperature threshold. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are classified as gemstones. Since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Eurasia. Quartz is the mineral defini ...
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Cape May Point, New Jersey
Cape May Point is a borough located at the tip of the Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County, New Jersey and is the southernmost point in the state. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the resident population was 305, an increase of 14 from the 2010 census enumeration of 291,DP-1 - Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 for Cape May Point borough, Cape May County, New Jersey
. Accessed October 1 ...
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Souvenir
A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a memento of a visit. The object itself may have intrinsic value, or be a symbol of experience. Without the owner's input, the symbolic meaning is lost and cannot be articulated. As objects The tourism industry designates tourism souvenirs as commemorative merchandise associated with a location, often including geographic information and usually produced in a manner that promotes souvenir collecting. Throughout the world, the souvenir trade is an important part of the tourism industry serving a dual role, first to help improve the local economy, and second to allow visitors to take with them a memento of their visit, ultimately to encourage an opportunity for a return visit, or to promote the locale to other tourists as a form of word-o ...
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Beach Combing
Beachcombing is an activity that consists of an individual "combing" (or searching) the beach and the intertidal zone, looking for things of value, interest or utility. A beachcomber is a person who participates in the activity of beachcombing. Despite these general definitions, beachcombing and beachcomber are words with multiple, but related, meanings that have evolved over time. Historical usage The first appearance of the word "beachcombers" in print was in Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s ''Two Years Before the Mast'' (1840) and later referenced in Herman Melville's ''Omoo'' (1847). It described a population of Europeans who lived in South Pacific islands, "combing" the beach and nearby water for flotsam, jetsam, or anything else they could use or trade. When a beachcomber became totally dependent upon coastal fishing for his sustenance, or abandoned his original culture and set of values ("went native"), then the term "beachcomber" was synonymous with a criminal, a drifter, or ...
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Higbee Beach
Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area is a wildlife management area in Lower Township, Cape May County, New Jersey. Geography Higbee Beach features a mile and a half of pristine shoreline from New England Road to Sunset Boulevard. There are six locales at the Wildlife Management Area: Signal Hill, Davey’s Lake, Pond Creek, Sassafras Island, Hidden Valley, and the Magnesite Plant. The Hidden Valley farm was a 92-acre farm that was sold to New Jersey in 1986 and incorporated in Higbee Beach. Part of the farm is used for equestrian activities. Davey's Lake, which is 300 yards long, 90 yards wide, and 12 feet deep, was dug in 1910 by the Cape May Sand Company. History In 1807, a tavern was constructed at the mouth of the New England Creek and Delaware Bay, at the present-day location of the Cape May Canal. It was run by Thomas and Rhoda Forrest until 1823, when pilot Joseph S. Higbee purchased the land. By 1830, he had come to own a large plantation. Higbee used the spot as a land ...
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Sunset Beach (New Jersey)
Sunset Beach is a beach located on the Cape May Peninsula, in Lower Township, New Jersey, near Cape May Point, along the Delaware Bay, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a local tourist attraction due in part to its proximity to the SS ''Atlantus'' (locally known as the "Concrete Ship") and the Cape May Lighthouse. Attractions Sunset Beach is known for a flag raising-lowering ceremony which is held daily from Memorial Day weekend through August, and on Saturdays in September. All the flags flown in the ceremony are flags from the caskets of veterans. The ceremony has been taking place on Sunset beach since 1973. Other attractions include Cape May diamonds Cape May diamonds (sometimes capitalized "Diamonds") are quartz pebbles found on the beaches of Cape May Point, New Jersey. The pebbles are sometimes collected, cut and polished to resemble diamonds, then sold locally as souvenirs. Cape May diam ..., clear quartz crystals that can be easily found along the beach's len ...
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Sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass. The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non- tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz. Calcium carbonate is the second most common type of sand, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past 500million years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish. For example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. Somewhat more rarely, sand may be composed of ...
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New Castle, Delaware
New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The city is located six miles (10 km) south of Wilmington and is situated on the Delaware River. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 5,285. History New Castle was originally settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1651 under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant on the site of a former aboriginal village, "Tomakonck" ("Place of the Beaver"), to assert their claim to the area based on a prior agreement with the aboriginal inhabitants of the area. The Dutch originally named the settlement Fort Casimir, but this was changed to Fort Trinity (Swedish: ''Trefaldighet'') following its seizure by the colony of New Sweden on Trinity Sunday, 1654. The Dutch conquered the entire colony of New Sweden the following year and rechristened the fort Nieuw-Amstel ("New Amstel", after the Amstel). This marked the end of the Swedish colony in Delaware as an official entity, but it remained a semi-autonomous unit ...
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Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before emptying into Delaware Bay. It is the longest free-flowing river in the Eastern United States. The river has been recognized by the National Wildlife Federation as one of the country's Great Waters. The river's watershed drains an area of and provides drinking water for 17 million people. The river has two branches that rise in the Catskill Mountains of New York: the West Branch at Mount Jefferson in Jefferson, Schoharie County, and the East Branch at Grand Gorge, Delaware County. The branches merge to form the main Delaware River at Hancock, New York. Flowing south, the river remains relatively undeveloped, with protected as the Upper, Middle, and Lower Delaware National Scenic Rivers. At Trenton, New Jersey, the Dela ...
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Native Americans In The United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are generally known by other terms). There are 574 federally recognized tribes living within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. As defined by the United States Census, "Native Americans" are Indigenous tribes that are originally from the contiguous United States, along with Alaska Natives. Indigenous peoples of the United States who are not listed as American Indian or Alaska Native include Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and the Chamorro people. The US Census groups these peoples as " Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders". European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of new diseases, wars, ethni ...
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Kechemeche
The Kechemeche were a Lenni Lenape tribe of Native Americans that lived in the area generally known today as the southern portion of Cape May County, New Jersey, an area bounded on one side by the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay on the other. The Kechemeche were first encountered in approximately the year 1600 by European colonists who found the natives to be generally friendly and cooperative. By 1735 the Kechemeche were no longer a viable population, through losses from illness and disease, from being absorbed into the occupying colonial population, and by settling elsewhere, including joining other tribes. Eventually, remaining Kechemeche were relocated to Oklahoma by the U.S. government, along with other Lenape (Delaware) tribes, where their descendants remain to this day. Life The colonial settlers described the Kechemeche as a robust, healthy people, who hunted and grew crops, such as corn, squash, and beans. In Kechemeche society, women did the growing of crops, th ...
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