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Amber Collecting
We offer authentic rare museum quality Dominican amber display specimens of rare insects in amber for sale. Our collections include museum quality rare insects in amber, unusual botanicals and flowers in amber and also rare Dominican blue amber. We have traveled many times to the Dominican Republic where we have chiseled beautiful amber gemstones out of the lignite layers deep in the amber mines north of Santiago. We have excavated in the Palo Alto, the Palo Quemado and Los CaCaos blue amber mines and also in La Nueva Toca and the world famous La Toca amber mines way up in the mountains north of Santiago.

We have been collecting amber in the field and preparing rough fossil amber specimens since 1993. Photographs of our specimens have appeared in National Geographic, Nature, Science, Scientific American, Discover, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and others. We have been featured in PaleoWorld's The Amber Hunters. We offer authentic museum quality Dominican Amber display specimens of rare insects in amber and also authentic rare Dominican rough unprepared amber for sale. For many years we have extensively collected mid Cretaceous New Jersey amber in the Raritan formation of central New Jersey and have traveled many times to collect late Cretaceous and early Paleocene amber in the Hanna formation of eastern Wyoming. We have collected mid Cretaceous amber in the Black Creek formation of eastern North Carolina and we have spent weeks collecting mid Cretaceous amber in the northern most Tundra of Alaska. Some of our most recent collecting trips have been in October of 2003 to the western Aleutian Islands some 1000 miles west of Anchorage to explore and collect Miocene amber, in August of 2004 we were back in the Dominican Republic to collect Miocene amber from the Palo Quemado amber mines which have recently closed due to the miners finding little amber, and most recently we were back to the Dominican Republic in December of 2006 and in April of 2006 to excavate and video in the La Toca amber mine (and also surf and kite board on the north shore!). We have donated many hundreds of amber specimens to museums in the United States and have several dozen new species of insects in amber named after us. We have examined several thousand specimens of rough Burmese amber and have prepped many new Burmese fossil amber specimens. We have traveled to Europe with colleagues to examine unusual spectacular Dominican Amber specimens in private collections and we consider the amber curators of the museums in Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and New York City our friends. Exploring for and collecting amber along with the examination and research of amber is our passion.

Most of our specimens have been examined by paleoentomologists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where all specimens of scientific importance are donated, in return the paleoentomologists at the museum identify the more unusual inclusions for us.

Fluorescent Minerals
We also offer very rare fluorescent minerals from both the world famous Sterling Hill and the Franklin Zinc mines in northern New Jersey. Both mines are world renowned for their beautiful fluorescent minerals and both mines are reported as the Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World. The Franklin Zinc mine closed in 1954 and although the Sterling Hill Zinc Mine closed in 1984 we have been very fortunate to have spent many hours underground in the Sterling Hill Zinc mine - retrieving artifacts and documenting some of the historic mine workings on video and in photographs.

Our mining and spelunking adventures began when we were 9 or10 years old when our father took us along with our cousins and our uncle to explore natural caves in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Being lowerd by rope, into a sink hole 25 feet deep, was a lasting impression we will never forget. Digging trenches in our backyard back home with Pops helping us use planks to cover trenches, and cover the planks with dirt- I can still remember the look on our aunt's and uncle's faces as they looked on in awe as we crawled through the trenches with the dog. Finding the first mine hole in Hibernia New Jersey and feeling the cold air on our arms, as we gazed to the portal of the famous Hibernia tunnel was another lasting impression. From Frank Meloi and Kelly Estler (www.ghosttowns.com/states/nj/hibernia.html) ..."Hibernia was once the site of iron mining operations. Deposits of rich magnetite ore were worked at this locality since the time of the revolution. In the nineteenth century, just before the civil war, miners tunneled deep into the massive vein of ore extracting thousands of tons per year of the black metal. This deposit was worked, on and off, well into the twentieth century when it was shut down. The mine consisted of a sloping tunnel which penetrated the hillside for over 2000 feet, along with 12 vertical shafts on the mountain above which intersected with the tunnel below. The deepest of these shafts, No. 12, was nearly 3000 feet deep! These shafts, for safety concerns, were filled in in the 70's, but much remains of the giant industry that once reigned in these parts. The tunnel itself can still be visited. It is sealed off with a grate to allow bats to enter, and provides a constant blast of cool air in the summer months. There are also ruins of miner housing, hoists, furnaces and misc.. buildings. Several old road beds and a railroad bed, (the tracks are gone) criss-cross the expanse of wooded, mountainous terrain. The mine can be reached by following Hibernia Ave. north from route 80. After passing through a deep mountain pass, you will see a white gravel parking area on your right in between Main Rd. and sunny side court. Park here and follow the Bat Hibernaculum trail to the mine. Feel free to enjoy nature and the rich history around you, but please be respectful, this wonderful piece of our industrial heritage cannot be replaced." When we finally found the Franklin and Sterling Hill Zinc mines and began exploring the old mine ruins and the mill dump for florescent minerals we knew we had begun a lifelong passion. Our first chance to go underground at the Sterling Hill mine was a thrilling adventure. We've taken taking every coal mine tour in PA, exploring old sealed tunnels, and we've also wandered the old hills of gold mines in Silverton Colorado. We have a huge appetite for historic photographs of mines and mining methods. We've spoken with Mr. Ken Cramer a 92 years of age man who had been mining for 60-70 years, he is still active and still very knowledgeable, an inspirational human being they sure do not make them like him anymore.

Enjoy! - Rich, Tyler, Michael and Jamie!

If you have questions please feel free to email us at the below address:

E-Mail address
adventures101us@yahoo.com