How We Map Rockhounding Sites

Rockhounding.org maps documented rockhounding, mineral collecting, and fossil sites across the globe — every site with GPS coordinates, what has been found there, and how it is accessed. The maps exist so you can spend your research time deciding where to go, not digging through scattered government databases to find out what exists.

Most of the database is built from government geological records:

• USGS Mineral Resources Data System — hundreds of thousands of documented mineral occurrences, mines, and prospects across the United States.
• The Paleobiology Database — documented fossil collection sites, maintained by an international consortium of researchers.
• Oregon DOGAMI — the state's Mineral Information Layer for Oregon.
• BC Geological Survey MINFILE, Alberta Geological Survey, the Saskatchewan Mineral Deposits Index, the New Brunswick Mineral Occurrence Database, and SIGÉOM (© Gouvernement du Québec, CC BY 4.0) — provincial geological survey records for Canada.

Every location page and every state map cites the source its data came from, so you always know whether a pin traces back to a government survey or a community report.

The rest comes from rockhounds who go outside and hit rocks. Anyone can submit a location through the map pages — coordinates, what they found, and how they accessed it. Nothing publishes automatically. Every submission is held for review, checked against land records and existing data, and either approved, corrected, or rejected before it appears on any map.

Before a site goes live, we check three things:

• The coordinates resolve to a real place — not a geocoded town center, not the middle of a lake, not someone's backyard.
• The finds are plausible — reported minerals are cross-checked against the regional geology and the government occurrence records for the area.
• The access type is stated honestly — public land, permit required, or paid dig site. When we can't determine access, we say so rather than guess.

Government source data is re-synced periodically, community submissions are reviewed as they arrive, and each map page shows its own last-updated date. Land status changes faster than any database: mines close, claims are staked, roads wash out, and rules change. Always confirm current land status, regulations, and access with the managing agency before visiting any site.

Content and data on Rockhounding.org are compiled, reviewed, and maintained by the Rockhounding.org Research Team — rockhounds with backgrounds in geology, public land management, and field collecting. We correct mistakes instead of burying them: if a pin is wrong, a mine has closed, or access has changed, report it through the location's page and we'll fix it.