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I remember seeing something on the travel channel around Herkimer, NY. I think it was some type of faux diamond mine.

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There is also a fossil place there somewhere too not just Herkimer Diamonds, I'll see if I can find a link.

Some of the best fossil's I've found are ont he cuts that Route 20 goes through near Cherry Valley- I found a ton of tiny trilobite- that is a bit out of your range though, look around for some nice outcrops or gravel pits, you can find some really nice fossils all through Central NY.

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I live up near Watertown, and while growing up, we would spend hours finding trilobyte (sp?) fossils all over the shale streambeds near my home.  Never had to dig––just looked down and almost every piece of shale you grabbed would have one or more good fossils on it.

That was 25-30 years ago––funny thing now is, when I take my 8 year old son out to the same creeks, it's much harder to find them (but they are still there––never come back empty handed.)  I believe that I just happened to grow up at a time when the layer(s) that had all those fossils was/were exposed.  The thought of that timing (if my theory is correct) astounds me every time I think about it.

Anyway––my advice would be to drive down some back roads and look for shale creekbeds.  If you find any, the creeks themselves (or at the very least, the area under the bridge) is public territory.

Or how about this––my new hobby is metal detecting––if you can hook me up with some old homestead sites that I can detect (meaning you would have permission to be there/do that), I would be happy to take you and your daughter on a 'fossil expedition' on my family's land––if not this fall, then next year when the water levels fall a bit...  (PM me if you're interested.)

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The Skaneateles Lake shoreline was littered with horn coral, crinoid stems and brachiopods in the shale.  Unfortunately I do not know where there is public access to the shore where you might be able to look.  Until 1974, my family had a cottage on the east side of the lake near Borodino.  My parents amassed a large collection of fossils from that shore.  My favorites were the horn corals.  You might see if you can gain access to the shore by Borodino Landing (if that still exists).

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Check out the Fossil Finders website which is geared toward kids in grades 5-9. In the Ithaca area, the Portland Point Shale Quarry is a good place to look for fossils. It’s located right next to
the Cargill Salt Mine, and is about 15 minutes north from Ithaca. I've collected trilobites, brachiopods and coral fossils there in the past.