Pacific GeoLab’s
Rucks Pit Crystal Clam Festival
Okeechobee Florida April 2025
at the REAL Rucks Pit!

Incredible! is the most common term used when people see this unusual combination of crystals and fossils. Now you have a chance to dig your own – at the REAL Rucks Pit. To be clear – the nearby “Ft Drum Crystal Mine” is NOT Rucks Pit! Pacific GeoLab has exclusive rights to the old quarry which is the real Rucks Pit where these spectacular fossils are found. Up until now we have never allowed other people to dig these specimens. But NOW is your chance! We will be hosting an exclusive dig event at Rucks Pit on April 10 -13, 2025. This may be your only chance to dig these unique specimens for yourself. Only a few dozen people will be allowed, and only for a few days.

Keep whatever you find. Your satisfaction is guaranteed.

The cost will be $475 per person, per day. There is no payment due at this time. But if you are seriously interested, please fill out the form below to get more info when we open the registration. We will contact you later when the event is confirmed with full details. Payment will be due at that time.

our exclusive

MAKE-YOU-SMILE GUARANTEE

You WILL find crystal clams!

But, if you are not perfectly happy with what you find,
you will be allowed to pick $400 worth of beautiful,
 fully prepared crystal clams to take home with you.

The digging is not very difficult. Any able-bodied person can do it. It mostly involves using hand tools to dig through the layers of loose material. As you find specimens you rinse them off with water hoses we provide. Also mixed into the unconsolidated sediments are pieces of hardened matrix that have multiple clams as well. These can be worked with chisels and mallets. It goes without saying that you can get pretty dirty!

Background

Discovered in the mid-1990s in a quarry near Lake Okeechobee, Florida, these crystal-lined fossil clams quickly became famous in both the mineral and fossil world. But by the mid-2000s the mining played out, the quarry flooded, and the land was sold. A few years later Pacific GeoLab secured exclusive access to the property. Over the years we have discovered several sites where we excavate the classic crystalized clams that made this occurrence famous.

How They Formed

This area was a shallow sea about 2 million years ago. Like many bivalve communities today, these clams lived in sandy mud near the shoreline at the time. Sudden storm events periodically buried the area under deep sediments, trapping the clams. As their bodies decayed, the process left behind cavities in the shells. With the heat and pressure that accompanied the pile-up of sediments, the original shell material (aragonite) became unstable and began to dissolve away. As it happened, this provided the elements necessary to grow pure honey-colored calcite crystals in the open spaces.