New Jersey’s rainbow mine

At New Jersey’s Sterling Hill Mining Museum, you’ll find that rocks glow every color of the rainbow, said Jennifer Billock in SmithsonianMag .com. A working zinc mine from 1739 to 1986, Sterling Hill is now home to the world’s largest publicly displayed collection of fluorescent rocks—minerals that emit bright colors under black light. Visitors are introduced to this Technicolor phenomenon at the museum’s entrance, where more than 100 huge fluorescent mineral specimens cover an entire wall flooded with ultraviolet light. The main museum, housed in the mine’s 100-year-old mill building, has touchable displays for kids, but the most dazzling display is underground. On a tour of the old mine, you’ll walk through shimmering tunnels to the entirely fluoresced Rainbow Room. “Much of the route is illuminated by UV light, causing a burst of glowing neon reds and greens from the exposed zinc in the walls.”