Summary:

Diamond Hill is one of the most popular pay-to-dig sites in the Southeast. While you’re mainly digging through tailings piles for quartz here, the finds can be very surprising. Brilliant orange iridescence can be found on high grade skeletal quartz clusters due to hematite layers on their surface. Likewise, a deep black color can scale over quartz crystals due to oxidized manganese.

Amethyst also makes an appearance as well at this site, especially in some of the larger crystals that have been found here over the years.

This is a site that many people have differing opinions on. Based on my own experience, the quartz clusters were distributed somewhat randomly. Diamond Hill has been operated for many, many years and you’ll ultimately be digging through tailings piles. The trick is to move a lot of ground and don’t be afraid to move spots if you’re not finding much. For us, our best pieces all came from a couple “hotspots” where our best pieces were found within 4 or 5 feet of each other.

As of writing this in late 2025, Diamond Hill carries a $20/day dig fee.