Where to Find Quartz in West Virginia
West Virginia quartz concentrates in the Appalachian sandstone country of the eastern panhandle. Berkeley Springs in Morgan County and the surrounding Lost River drainage in Hardy and Hampshire counties yield doubly-terminated quartz crystals ("diamonds") in sandstone vugs, similar in habit to the Herkimer diamond of New York. The crystals are small (under a centimeter) but well-formed and water-clear. Smaller showings of milky and smoky quartz occur in the Greenbrier Limestone outcrops of the southeast. Most collecting is on roadcuts and creek beds in eroded sandstone bluffs; active quarry access is limited.
Map of 12 quartz collecting spots in West Virginia
Standout quartz spots in West Virginia
Hand-picked from the full list below, with the reason each one earns a trip.
Petersburg
Grant County
Petersburg sits on the South Branch Potomac River just downstream of Smoke Hole Canyon, where the river drops onto a broad valley and drops its bed load of quartz, calcite, and dolomite eroded from the Silurian and Devonian ridges upstream.
Fort Spring
Greenbrier County
Fort Spring lies on the Greenbrier River in southern Greenbrier County, in the Mississippian carbonate belt that gives the county its celestite, calcite, and dolomite.
Williamsburg
Greenbrier County
Williamsburg sits in the northern Greenbrier County belt of the Hillsdale Limestone, the same formation that yields West Virginia's state gem silicified coral in neighboring Pocahontas County.
Knobly Mountain
Mineral County
Knobly Mountain is a classic 19th-century West Virginia mineral locality, a railroad cut on the mountain's west flank that exposed limestone yielding exceptional celestite crystals before 1890.
Berkeley Springs
Morgan County
Berkeley Springs anchors the eastern panhandle, where the Devonian Oriskany (Ridgeley) Sandstone is worked for exceptionally pure glass sand and its vuggy zones produce clear and smoky quartz crystals, some in large clusters.
Harman
Randolph County
Harman lies in the high country of eastern Randolph County near the Dry Fork of the Cheat River and the edge of the Monongahela National Forest, where folded Devonian and Mississippian carbonates weather out quartz, calcite, and dolomite.
Best counties for quartz in West Virginia
Ranked by the number of mapped quartz spots. County links open the full rockhounding page for that county.
- Greenbrier County4 spots
- Berkeley County1 spot
- Grant County1 spot
- Jefferson County1 spot
- Mineral County1 spot
- Monroe County1 spot
- Morgan County1 spot
- Pendleton County1 spot
- Randolph County1 spot
Every quartz spot we track in West Virginia
Sorted by county. Coordinates open in Google Maps.
| Spot | County | Minerals | Coordinates | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley County | Berkeley County | 39.4727, -77.9076 | Public | |
| PetersburgUS 220;WV 28;WV 55 | Grant County | 38.9972, -79.0756 | Public | |
| AldersonRed & Blue Sulphur Springs Turnpike | Greenbrier County | 37.7957, -80.6212 | Public | |
| Fort SpringJohn Foeren Way | Greenbrier County | 37.7428, -80.5533 | Public | |
| FrazerHighland Trail | Greenbrier County | 37.7502, -80.5602 | Public | |
| WilliamsburgWhite Oak Trail | Greenbrier County | 37.9774, -80.4963 | Public | |
| Snickers GapMission Road | Jefferson County | 39.1589, -77.8459 | Permission | |
| Knobly Mountain | Mineral County | 39.3459, -79.0029 | Public | |
| UnionBuster Brown Road | Monroe County | 37.5361, -80.5165 | Public | |
| Berkeley SpringsHancock Road | Morgan County | 39.6490, -78.2176 | Public | |
| FranklinMountaineer Drive | Pendleton County | 38.6542, -79.3864 | Public | |
| HarmanUS 33;WV 55 | Randolph County | 38.9154, -79.5131 | Public |
Before you go
Read the quartz identification guide so you know what a keeper looks like in the field: Quartz in the encyclopedia.
Quartz in West Virginia FAQ
Where can you find quartz in West Virginia?+
How many quartz spots are mapped in West Virginia?+
Is it legal to collect quartz in West Virginia?+
Where else to find quartz
More minerals to hunt in West Virginia
Hunt quartz in West Virginia with the map in your pocket
RockHoundR puts these spots on an offline map with BLM and Forest Service overlays, geology layers, and a log for your finds.
