Deep in the hills of northern New Jersey, there’s a tunnel where the walls glow neon green and electric red. No filters, no tricks. Just rocks.
Welcome to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, a retired zinc mine that’s now one of the most unusual day trips you can take from the city.
You get to walk straight into the side of a mountain, see the rock light up under UV light, and leave with a glowing souvenir in your pocket.
Plenty of rock nerds already know about it.
Most New Yorkers? Not so much. Time to change that.
Inside the glowing Rainbow Tunnel
The guided tour runs about two hours and starts above ground, in an exhibit hall packed with mining memorabilia, minerals, fossils and meteorites.
Keep an eye out for items invented by Thomas Edison, who ran an iron mining operation in the area.
Then you head underground. The walking tour takes you through the upper level of the mine, past old mining equipment and a live drilling and blasting demonstration.
The grand finale? The Rainbow Tunnel. The guide switches on ultraviolet lights, and the walls explode into color. The tunnel leads into the Rainbow Room, where the green glow comes from a zinc ore called willemite and the red from calcite. It’s a photographer’s dream, and the photos really don’t do it justice.
Best part: every visitor takes home a fluorescent mineral sample. Way cooler than a fridge magnet.
Pack a light jacket too because it is a mine after all, and the tunnels stay cool year-round.
The world’s largest display of glowing rocks
Back above ground, the Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence is where things get even brighter. It’s known as the world’s largest publicly displayed collection of fluorescent rocks, with more than 700 objects on display inside the mine’s old 1916 mill building.
It opens with a showstopper: a 16-foot-wide, floor-to-ceiling wall of about 100 mineral specimens, all glowing under UV light.
There’s a reason this corner of New Jersey has so many. The nearby town of Franklin was crowned the “Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World” back in 1968, and the Franklin and Sterling Hill area is home to more than 360 known minerals. Some of them have never been found anywhere else on Earth.
Yes, Zoolander filmed here
Remember when Derek Zoolander went home to work in the coal mine with his dad and brothers? Those scenes, starring Ben Stiller, Jon Voight and Vince Vaughn, were filmed right here at Sterling Hill.
Fun fact: the “coal” in those mine carts was actually painted foam, and some of it is still hanging around the site. Really, really, ridiculously good movie trivia.
From working mine to museum
This place has serious history too. Sterling Hill was mined for zinc for more than 138 years, and its tunnels stretch about 35 miles, reaching depths of more than 2,600 feet. When it closed in 1986, it was the last working underground mine in New Jersey.
After a tax dispute with the town, Ogdensburg took over the property and auctioned it off in 1989. Two brothers, Richard and Robert Hauck, bought it for $750,000 with a plan to turn it into a museum. They opened it to the public in August 1990, and a year later, the mine landed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Plan your visit
- Where: 30 Plant Street, Ogdensburg, NJ. The entrance is on Passaic Street, under the railroad trestle.
- When: from September 8, 2026 through June 26, 2027, tours run on weekends only, with the main tour leaving at 1 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Get there early to grab tickets and browse the gift shop.
- Tickets: adults (13+) are $16, seniors (65+) $15, kids 4 to 12 $14 and under-4s $5.
- On weekdays: the gift shop, mineral collecting and sluicing are open, though hours can vary with the weather, so call ahead at 973-209-7212.
- For kids: little ones can sift for minerals and fossils in a water trough. The Mine Run Dump rock collecting is best for serious collectors 18 and up.
- For groups: groups of 15 or more can book a private tour by phone at least two weeks in advance.
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