Ace of Diamonds Mine & Campground

03/28/2025

With April just around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to give everyone a quick update on our situation. Unfortunately, our mine, campground, and gift shop will remain closed through the 2025 season. Although we do remain hopeful that we will be able to open again in the future, it is expected that our ongoing court case will continue into next year. We will provide a further update as soon as we have more information.

02/13/2024

It is with a very heavy heart that we announce that the Ace of Diamonds Mine & Campground will NOT re-open its mine, campground, and gift shop in the spring due to relentless and ever mounting obstacles created by our adversaries. Although our opponents have made every effort to destroy the small family business tirelessly built by my parents Ted and Anita Smith, and my grandparents Don and Helen Smith before them, we do hope to re-open at some point in the future like a phoenix rising from ashes. However, our physical location will not be re-opening until this horrific litigation among the current landowners is permanently resolved. It is expected that camping and mining will not be available at our facility for the entire 2024 season.

For those of our customers and friends who stuck with us through thick and thin, and for those who have contributed to our GoFundMe, I cannot thank you enough for your endless support and generosity. I will remain forever grateful for the countless friends and memories made over the years. For me, the Ace has been far more than a source of my family’s livelihood. It has been my heart, my home, my father’s lifework, and a way of keeping my late father’s spirit and dreams alive. There are some things that simply can’t be expressed in words and can never be adequately quantified with a checkbook. The magic of our mine is one of those things for me.

For those who contributed to our demise, tried to capitalize on my father’s 50+ years of hard work without any effort of their own, and attempted to take advantage of our hardships, shame on you.

As we mourn the ending of an era and plan our next step, we ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Our GoFundMe will remain active while we continue to navigate the legal minefield seeking a positive outcome that will allow us to save the mine, resume operating, and keep my family’s dreams alive.

We will continue to post further updates on our page and website as they become available.

With love and gratitude,

-Anna Jane Smith
Ace of Diamonds Mine & Campground, LLC

11/02/2023

We would like to thank everyone for their support this year. As a reminder, we are now closed for the season. Our hope is to re-open as usual next April, however, as our ongoing lawsuit rages on, the future of our business remains uncertain at this time. As soon as we know the outcome of the litigation, we will be sure to post an update on our page and website regarding our intentions and ability to open in the Spring. In the meantime, our GoFundMe remains active. We wish everyone a happy and healthy winter and hope to see everyone again next season!

07/02/2023

After 2 long years of litigation, we have a VERY important announcement for our customers. We are happy to announce that some of the appeals in our court case have been decided and the Court ruled that the preliminary injunction that has been stopping us from commercially mining for the past 2 years while the court case is pending was improperly issued. This means that effective immediately we can resume using our mining equipment, stirring the tailings piles, and adding fresh material to the tourist mining area! The restrictions on the type of customers allowed in the tourist mining area and the prohibition on tourists mining in-place bedrock have also been removed. The ropes in the upper tourist mining area have been removed and the ropes in the lower tourist mining area will be removed once the prior claimholders have been notified of their ability to return. Essentially, our mine is being allowed to return to pre-litigation normal.

With that being said, please keep in mind that our litigation is still ongoing and the ultimate future of our mine remains uncertain. Once the remaining appeals are decided it is expected that the mine will be either sold at public auction or physically divided up between the current landowners, unless a settlement agreement is reached between the parties (our appeal seeking to buy the mine using an appraised value outside of an auction setting was not successful). Therefore, our GoFundMe remains active and there is no better time than the present to plan your visit to our mine as we do not know what the future holds for us. In addition, please keep in mind that generating fresh material to add to the tourist mining area is not an instantaneous process…fresh tailings are a by-product of our commercial mining and it will take a bit of time for us to adjust and return to normal, especially without beloved mine owner Ted Smith here to run our heavy equipment. Once we are ready to add fresh tailings to the tourist piles, we will make another announcement, which we expect will also include a change to our current daily admission ticket fee.

We are also seeking temporary part-time help in our gift shop. If you are interested in applying, please email [email protected] with your resume. Trustworthiness, willingness to work weekends, the ability to accurately use a calculator, and a basic knowledge of Herkimer Diamonds are a must. Knowledge of other minerals is preferred, but not required.

As always, we would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support of our business. We look forward to greeting you all as we work to return our mine to its former glory! Please share this exciting news far and wide. Thank you!

05/19/2023

Although WE REMAIN OPEN FOR BUSINESS, we have set up a GoFundMe due to the ongoing litigation involving the land on which our business operates. Please share. Thank you in advance for anyone who decides to share or donate.

My name is Anna Jane Smith and I am the owner of the Ace of Diamonds Mine &… Anna Smith needs your support for Please help save my family's mine from auction

05/08/2023

Good afternoon everyone. In response to a recently issued Order in our court case, we are writing this post to advise everyone of some new restrictions at our mine. Due to a court order, the mining of minerals on the property for the purpose of re-sale is not allowed, and we cannot knowingly allow anyone access to the mining area for mineral collecting, who owns, operates, is employed by, or is associated with a business or company involved in the sale, trading, or bartering of Herkimer Diamonds. Before entering the mining area, you will be required to confirm that you do not own, operate, and are not employed by a business or company involved with the sale, trading, or bartering of Herkimer Diamonds. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our customers and for any frustration you may be feeling, however, we must comply with the Court’s order.

04/12/2023

Good afternoon everyone,
We had our court appearance this morning and we do have an update for everyone. The good news is that tourist mining will be allowed to continue and the gift shop and campground will remain open. Camping will begin April 15th. However, claims are no longer allowed on the property (you cannot reserve a space with a tarp) and mining the pocket layer, rock face, ledge areas, rock wall, or any in-place bedrock is prohibited. In other words, tourist mining is strictly limited to digging through the existing tailings piles (i.e. existing rubble piles of dirt and rock). This change is being made to ensure that no commercial mining (i.e. no mining by us or by anyone else for the purpose of resale) occurs on the property during the remainder of the ongoing litigation. These restrictions will need to be strictly enforced on a zero-tolerance basis to ensure there is no violation of the court’s order. Any violation of the court’s order would result in a total shutdown of our mine and/or our business being fined by the court. Thank you for understanding as our business navigates these difficult and uncertain times.

03/27/2023

Good morning and happy Spring to everyone!

We just wanted to let everyone know that our mine and gift shop will be opening on April 1st at 9:00AM. However, due to the unpredictable cold weather here in upstate New York, we will not be turning the water on until April 15th, which means that camping, the sluice, indoor restrooms, sinks, and water spigots will not be available. Portable toilets will be available.

Unfortunately, the lawsuit affecting our business is still ongoing. Our next court appearance is scheduled for April 12th at which time the court will be considering whether or not to allow our mine to remain open for the remainder of the lawsuit. Once we know the outcome of that court appearance, we will make a further announcement on our page and website.

If you are interested in making a camping reservation, the best way to do so is by calling our office at (315) 891-3855 any time after April 1st between 10AM and 4PM. If you are looking to camp on or after April 15th, it is recommended that you hold off on making a reservation until we have further information about the status of our litigation.

11/01/2022

Well that's all folks! Our mine, gift shop, and campground are now officially closed for the season. We would like to thank everyone for their support this season and wish everyone a safe and healthy winter. We will re-open on April 1st. We look forward to seeing everyone again in the spring!

05/09/2022

Good afternoon! We would like to let everyone know that our mine and gift shop will be closed next Monday, May 16th as we lay mine owner Ted Smith to rest. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but felt it was important that our entire staff be able to attend the services. We will resume normal business hours the next morning at 9:00AM. Thank you in advance for understanding.

04/23/2022

Now that the snowy weather seems to be behind us, the sluice is open for the season!