Franklin Mineral Museum

Why Franklin Is the Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World

In 1968 the New Jersey Legislature handed this small borough an official title: Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World. That was not tourism copy. The orebody beneath Franklin averaged close to 25 percent zinc by weight, and together with its sister deposit at Sterling Hill, 2.5 miles away in Ogdensburg, it produced 33 million tons of ore and more than 400 identified mineral species. Nothing else on the planet quite matches it.

The Franklin Mineral Museum sits on that ground. After the last ore came up in 1954, the Franklin Kiwanis Club took on the museum as a community project, working alongside members of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society. It was incorporated in June 1964 and opened to visitors on October 9, 1965. Sixty years on, it is still a nonprofit, and it still draws school groups by the busload.

What You’ll See Inside

The local mineral room holds specimens of the zinc ores that made this place famous: willemite, franklinite, zincite. The world room runs to more than 5,000 specimens from everywhere else. There’s a fossil room with trilobites, dinosaur footprints, and a mastodon tusk, a Native American room built around Lenni Lenape stone tools, and a replica mine tunnel you walk through.

The one everybody remembers is the fluorescent room. A 32-foot display goes dark, the shortwave lamps come on, and gray rock turns screaming green and red. Kids who were bored two rooms ago suddenly are not.

Collecting on the Buckwheat Dump

Behind the museum is the Buckwheat Dump, 3.5 acres of rock the New Jersey Zinc Company threw away. Collectors have been picking through it for decades and are still finding species new to the area. Admission includes two pounds per person and a collecting bag, with more available by the pound. There’s an ID shed with UV lamps so you can check your haul before you commit.

Before You Go Out There

Closed-toe shoes, no exceptions. The grade is steep and the footing is loose. An upper collecting area is available for anyone who can’t manage the dump itself. No tools needed, and kids aren’t permitted to use them. Collecting runs rain or shine and closes an hour before the museum does.

Pair it with the Sterling Hill Mining Museum for a full geology day, or work it into a weekend of things to do with kids in Sussex County. Two picnic areas are on site, one under a pavilion, since there’s no food service. More places to eat in Franklin are a short drive away.