Cape May diamonds (sometimes capitalized "Diamonds") are

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 form ...

pebbles found on the beaches of

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 pebbles are sometimes collected, cut and polished to resemble diamonds, then sold locally as

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 m ...

s. Cape May diamonds are usually collected by

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. ...

and are most abundant at Higbee (sometimes, Higby's) and

Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...

beaches in Cape May. Cape May diamonds range in size from the finest

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 s ...

to a "Cape May diamond" found in

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 Castl ...

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

washed down, and worn smooth in the process, from the upper

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

. Apocryphally, the trip takes thousands of years. However, geologists suggest the pebbles are local in origin, washing out of nearby Pleistocene gravel deposits. Cape May diamonds are sometimes incorrectly described as river-smoothed glass discarded by New Jersey's once-thriving glass manufacturing industry.

Historical relevance

The Native American tribe called the

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. ...

resided in what is now the southern portion of

Cape May County, New Jersey Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are fiv ...

. Various sources attribute the Kechemeche with being the first to find Cape May diamonds and then using them as gifts or for trading with other tribes and with the newly arriving European colonists.

Works cited

{{Silica minerals Quartz gemstones Cape May, New Jersey

Origin

Historical relevance

See also

Works cited