| In Cape May, New Jersey, at Sunset Beach on | | | | upper reaches of Delaware River. |
| the shore of Delaware Bay you can see | | | | Over time, the pebbles are washed, ever so |
| the sunken wreck of the World War One | | | | slowly, past: Trenton, Palmyra, Camden |
| concrete ship, Atlantus. She lies there, half | | | | and Philadelphia and finally to the broad reaches |
| submerged, a few hundred feet offshore. The | | | | of the shallow, muddy Delaware |
| weather worn wreck is all that remains | | | | Bay.Here, on the pebble-filled shoreline of Sunset |
| of an experimental World War I concrete | | | | Beach, you can search for Cape May |
| freighter. She was towed there in 1926 to | | | | Diamonds. What you will find are clear quartz |
| be intentionally sunk as a breakwater and | | | | crystals that, after being polished, |
| protection for the entrance to the then | | | | look like diamonds to the untrained eye. It is |
| new, Cape May Canal. During a sudden storm on | | | | believed that the sunken ship has |
| Delaware Bay, she broke free of | | | | become a barrier that diverts the tides and |
| the towboats and was washed into the shallow | | | | currents carrying the Cape May |
| water a mile or more west of her | | | | Diamonds from the mountains of Pennsylvania |
| intended resting place near the Canal.As it | | | | toward the Atlantic Ocean. In this |
| happens, this un-natural, man-made barrier is the | | | | way, the journey of the quartz pebbles is |
| happy accident that makes | | | | changed and they are washed ashore here |
| Cape May Diamonds available to you. Here is | | | | instead of flowing into the nearby ocean. |
| what we believe to be the origin of | | | | Scientists estimate it can take over 1,000 |
| these unique Cape May Diamonds:It has been | | | | years for a pebble to move approximately 200 |
| estimated the journey of a Cape May Diamond | | | | miles, from the mountains of |
| begins when some quartz | | | | Pennsylvania to its final resting place on Sunset |
| rocks fall from a Pennsylvania mountain into the | | | | Beach, in Cape May New Jersey.The largest Cape |
| Delaware River. This is thought to | | | | May Diamond ever found weighed almost eight |
| happen at or near Delaware Water Gap, in the | | | | ounces. |