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Family and I took a trip to Beltzville State Park earlier this week. We stayed around the lake, looking along the shoreline and wading through water. Found some pretty cool Middle Devonian fossils. My wife lucked out with two Trilobite pieces, one of which is a really nice head imprint. I'm still working on identification, so please bare with me. Any help of course is appreciated. Coin is 22mm Shoreline Trilobite head (Phacops rana?) surrounded by Crinoid stems Trilobite (Phacops rana?) - lower abdomen Crinoid stems Crinoid stems Pleurodictyum tabulate coral (?) and brachiopod Crinoid stems Brachiopods and I'm not sure what the orange/black dotted impression is.

Like I said, Beltzville State Park is known for middle Devonian Mahantango Fm. fossils, and not at all known for eurypterids of any kind.

We found this very interesting (at least to us) fossil at Beltzville State Park (PA) recently and wondered what you all thought it was of. Thanks in advance for your feedback. We are fossil novices but love learning.

Beltzville State Park is one of those rare parks where collecting is allowed. The adjacent federal land, owned and operated by the Corps of Engineers to operate the dam there, is accessible ONLY WITH A PERMIT. It is a functioning spillway and there is a gun range for the local police, so you and USACE need to make sure you are safe. With that important disclaimer out of the way, here's the good stuff! Beltzville is a very productive Middle Devonian site which includes the PA State Fossil, the trilobite Eldredgeops rana. Although no one in the group found any definite complete buggies, a lot of froglike trilo faces went home in our buckets! It wasn't all trilos, though. We found bryozoa, corals, pteria oysters, gastropods, crinoids and probably a dozen kinds of brachiopods. I led this trip for the Natural History Society of Maryland. The trip director made this lovely video of our day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdB5atWQmeQ Yes, I realized about 20 minutes after she took that video of me showing off the pop-outs that I was holding the fronts of the cephalons of one species, not the eyeballs of the other. This is what I get for not looking with my reading glasses first! Most of my finds I gave to whoever was sitting closest to me, but here are a few I kept.

Might be a little late, but the last I heard (which was a few years ago pre-Covid) Reading Anthracite did allow for at least local school and club groups to visit the site. There's a possibility that's changed post-Covid, however. Another thing to consider is they might want a few weeks of heads up. If you're interested in plant sites there's a lot of sites closer to Detroit than St. Clair, which seems a little far for a day trip. If you definitely plan on going to St. Clair, however, I'd also look into some other places on the way over and make it a two or three day trip. Depending on how large your group is Swatara and Beltzville State Parks in PA might be worth looking into for Devonian marine fossils, and there are other exposures of Lewellyn Formation rocks around the Anthracite Region that are accessible.

I went back to Beltzville recently and found a few more fossils with which I would like help identifying. Last time I found what may have been a partial trilobite, and this time I found another that seems more likely. I also found a fossil that I originally picked up for the crinoid stem, but later noticed a dome with an almost honeycomb-like pattern on it. I am very curious as to what it is. And lastly, what appears almost like a large ring. Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks as always!

The Delaware Valley Paleontological Society got a permit to explore the restricted area at Beltaville Dam in Lehighton, PA today. The spillway for the dam is immense! The 20-50ish foot walls of the spillway are covered with rubble in swaths of hard blue-black and red stone, soft colorful clay stone, and the occasional bit of tan sandstone. All are from the Upper Devonian Mahantango Formation. The sun was shining, the air was warm and the wind was still. Perfect day for prospecting! Everybody spread out along the walls. There was more than ample room for everybody to claim a big spot to explore. I walked along the north wall until the smooth, flat stones started showing texture. I had expected to find very little in the harder material and lots of things in the colorful clay. That’s been my experience on the beach in the adjacent state park*, anyway. Quite the opposite! As soon as I found a promising spot in the hard matrix, I sat down and examined every rock. The trilobites were lurking watching me from all directions. I found eyes from at least 8 animals. Most I kept, just for the sake of counting. A couple I tossed because this was getting silly. One I gave to someone nearby, “So he can keep an eye out for you.” The best was this 2-inch Phacops sp. cephalon. I now officially claim to have the PA State Fossil. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to figure out if it’s P. rana, but the right genus is close enough for me. Such a cute little froggie face! I found one tiny brachiopod or bivalve among the buggies that still had the whole shell intact, albeit a might smoothed during its time under water. It's not silicified. It's not pyritized. It's still CaCO3 after all these ages. I tested it. I showed it to our trip leader who said that there was coral preserved like this shell further down the wall. Nifty. There were also some very nice, red-stained bryozoa and hash plates. Unfortunately, the hash plates were mostly at the narrow ends of long rocks, arranged 90 degrees from the plane of the layers in the splitting stone. Most I admired and left behind. There are only so many big, mostly-featureless rocks I can store in the house. After a couple hours, I appeared to exhaust my trilobite supply. People had walked past me with some pretty horn corals molds, so I headed towards the clay to see if I could find any. No luck. There was plenty of colorful stone, buy almost nothing as far as fossils, so I kept picking my way across the wall where I could get footing. I kept getting higher and higher until eventually I needed all 4s to navigate in any direction and abandoned my collection bucket. Another quarter mile or so down the wall, I found a good spot to slid tom the spillway floor. And there they were. In a space covering maybe 5 horizontal feet of the wall were rocks littered with preserved coral bodies. Jackpot! I spent at least an hour at the top. I tried to slide down a little and slid all the way to the bottom, unable to climb back up the steep pile of flat pebbles. There was definitely more at the bottom, but the middle eluded me. While poking around for corals, I found a couple of ½” brachiopods with both sides intact and a preserved crinoid stem. I walked across the spillway and back up the other side but found nothing. I somehow totally missed that the rest of the group had left, with just Rick and Steve watching me from a distance. Typical for me to be the last one out. I'll post a link in the comments to my Beltzville album when I finish sorting through my finds and photographing them. *Yes, I know it is illegal to collect fossils in most states' parks. Pennsylvania is an exception.

I would like help identifying these fossils, all found at Beltzville State Park.

Hi All, On May 21st, 2023, my family and I took a 90 minute drive to Colt's Neck, NJ, to visit a place called Big Brook Preserve. I saw a video on Instagram of a person finding Cretaceous period shark teeth in the middle of a crick bed. I had to go to this place. Wife and I loaded up our 12 and 10 year old, and off we went. Our first trip provided us with 1 complete shark tooth (Scapanorhynchus - Goblin Shark), 1 partial shark tooth (same), some belemnites, a few oyster valves (Agerostera) and a nice Devonian period trace scallop fossil. I was hooked, family had their fun. We made another trip out the next week. Shark teeth came a lot easier, and we found a complete Squalicorax tooth, a couple complete Goblin shark teeth, and a few partials. We also found a complete Enchodus tooth. We kept finding new species. Next trip I went solo. Family kind of lost interest, but I was hoping to find some of the other species I read about being found in the Brook. Well, this trip set the hook for me. I discovered a tooth, and after posting on a FB group, confirmed it belonged to a Mosasaur. It was small, but mostly complete aside from a small portion of the point. Amazing! I was cleaning up some of my other finds, and had this shiny rock that I thought was more than a rock. But, this was in a pile of other rocks that might be more than a rock, that turned out to be just rocks Well, I posted this piece on a FB group, and to my surprise it was a fragment of a Mastodon tooth! Whoa! Never thought I'd find something like that, especially in NJ of all places. I'm sure I'll never find another, but glad to say I found the one. Since then I've been back pretty much every weekend, checking out the different brooks. Have found several more different species since then, and each time is a new adventure. Hoping to branch out to other areas of the country soon. Family & I are going to Beltzville State Park in August. Area is known for Devonian period fossils right on the shoreline. And a trip to Calvert Cliffs, MD is definitely in my near future! In any case, I thought it would be interesting to catalog some of my finds as I go along. Thanks for looking, and feedback good or bad is always welcomed (please correct anything I've misidentified - I'm still learning, and won't be offended). Eric I'll kick-off with photos of some of the locations I've visited. Big Brook - First and one of my favorite spots Ramanessin Brook - Lot's of small shark teeth Leopard frog joined me for a few sifts.

I found these two fossils today and am hoping someone can help me positively identify.

Thanks, and good luck at Big Brook! Lot's of rain there this past weekend loosening up material, so you may luck out. Yeah, I can't wait to get back there. I enjoy Cretaceous, but it's fun finding new species from a new period. Actually going back several hundred million years, and heading up to the Poconos with the family this weekend. Going to check out Beltzville State Park. Lot's of Devonian fossils on the shore line, so should be a good time.

This was my first time at Beltzville State Park in Pennsylvania, USA. I believe these come the Upper Devonian Mahantango Formation. I saw similar examples in other posts as was hoping to confirm my guesses. Thanks 1. Horn coral? 2. Crinoid stem?- not sure if that’s something to the left of the stem. 3. Rugose coral?

From other examples I have seen, I think these are bryozoans (sp?). Is that correct? The first example in question is the one exhibiting pencil-like structure in the center of the rock. In the second picture (of the same specimen), there seems to be a porous structure shown. The shadows may look like the mold is raised from the rock, but it is not. The fossil is an imprint (concave into the matrix). I think these are from the Upper Devonian Mahantango Formation. Thanks

Hi All, My wife and I have recently started visiting some of the Devonian Mahantango fossil collecting areas in central and northeast Pennsylvania. Yesterday we made a trip to Beltzville State Park to do some casual collecting. After a couple of hours of collecting I came across what may be the face and eyes of an unknown trilobite. This was chiseled from a much larger piece and almost went into the waste bin! Anyway, any help with a proper ID would be much appricated. Thanks!

Was going past beltzville and decided to take a stop. We (me and my father who came along) happened upon a stretch of ungraveled lake side and took a look for twenty minutes. The fruits of our labor were the normal Mahantango mix, Brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, but my father (who is unexperienced in fossil hunting and doesn't really know what a trilobite looks like) picked up a trilo cephalon (Eldredgeops rana i think). I would have been happy, watching the sunset on the lake knowing that I possessed a trilobite, when I noticed another one right under my nose! Well, on the ground. I felt pretty good for twenty minutes,and after finding a trilobite I think my dads starting to get the fossil collecting itch.... heres the finds, might be posted here over a few days because I'm a bit busy. first trilobite

I made a gallery of this weekend's collecting adventure. Enjoy!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a fossil hunting trip, and also the last day of summer before my SO had to go back to school to teach little ones. So the clan of three gathered up our bathing suits, towels, sunscreen and a bag for holding fossil finds, and we drove out to Beltzville, PA, which has a little something for everyone! At first, we were at the swimming beach, playing around and looking for fossils there... well, the pickings were little to none. I think we found a small pebble that had some bryozoans in it. That was about it. I was wondering where all the fossils were? Did we arrive just after they had all been found? I stopped looking at this point (sigh of disappointment) and swam around with my daughter in the warm lake water. We went up for lunch, dried off, and my sweetie got on his phone and did some research on the park. Turns out there are other places around the lake better suited for fossil hunting! Yay! After we ate, and the little one played on the children's playground, we piled back into the car and headed to the other side... Way fewer people, and completely fossilicious!!

My 5 year old son and I are new to hunting. I posted our Big Brook NJ finds earlier today, we were bored so decided to take a trip to the close by Beltzville State park. Every rock has an imprint of clams, etc.. but I split open a rock and found this fossil clam. Probably just got lucky with the split not ruining the fossil.

We finally made it back out to Beltzville State Park on Saturday. Had a good time on a beautiful day. No trilobites though 😥

Last minutes trip to the lake today... Found a trilo partial (in my other topic) and the typical crinoid stuff. This is eastern PA Devonian material. These are some other things I would like some help on... This "thing" looks like a walnut... I assume some kind of plant life? I'm thinking this a crinoid stem... I liked how it's displayed in the rock And I see this pattern a lot... is it crinoid related as well?

We had a great time here back in the beginning of the summer. We were having a harder time finding rocks without fossils. This is only about an hours drive north of Philadelphia and the whole drive up my daughter was talking about how much she wanted to find a trilobite. Well, after a few hours, she got one! At least part of of one anyway. We were both thrilled. Awesome day.

I have been able to identify (with your help) a few of the fossils we found while hunting at Beltzville state park. This is something that may be something. I tried to get the six-sided pics as recommended. What might this be (if anything)? Beltzville State Park in Pennsylvania, USA. I believe these come the Upper Devonian Mahantango Formation. Thank you.

Leaving this afternoon to go to White Have PA to see my 1 daughter and baby grandson, and staying the night. Going to look for some quartz crystals at White Haven, that's where she lives. Then in the morning I have to be in East Stroudsburg PA for some business and after that's done I'm going to Beltzville State Park. I've been wanting to go there for the last 2 months or so but it never worked out. Now it does and I'm going fossil hunting. I'm excited about it! Plus while I'm driving I'll be on the lookout for some interesting road cuts. Can't wait! I'll post pics of my finds later in the weekend and let you know how it went.

Pennsylvania really has quite a lot to offer, at least from the Paleozoic. Two hours from Berks County puts you in range of a lot of different sites, ranging from the Cambrian to the Pennsylvanian. I haven't been up that way in a while, but going into the Anthracite Region around Mt. Carmel northeastish to Scranton has a lot of fern sites. Considering it's all pretty much sedimentary rock around there any outcrop you come across could have fossils, just make sure to concentrate in the shales as those tend to have the best specimens. PA-54 has some cuts north of Ashland that are probably worth looking into. Trilobite sites are a little harder to pin down as at most sites they're more of an accessory and not the focus as it were. Years and years ago there was Swatara Gap, but that site has been closed for several years because collectors began to undermine the bridge it was next to. The current Swatara site is dumped material from the Mahantango Formation I believe, and does have some Devonian trilobites, but not nearly as common as the previous Ordovician locality. I think there's also a Beltzmill or Beltzville, and Montour as others have suggested. I've never been but it sounds like you'll probably come away with brachiopods/bryozoans from them at least. Locust Lane is the usual Kinzers Formation site people bring up. I've actually been to Locust Lane and didn't find much of anything. I've seen photos of trilobites people claim are from there, but honestly I am left to doubt how true some of that is. The Kinzers is very hit and miss as most of the famous fossils are extremely localized lagerstatten. There's another site nearby Locust Lane called North George Street I believe, but it's along a very busy road and I'm not quite sure how anyone collected there in the first place (I guess parked somewhere else and walked up to it? There's no shoulder and the shale outcrop butts up right against the road, so I wouldn't recommend it). Sorry I can't help much with specific sites. The only other one I've been to was on private land, but it didn't have much anyways.

A large portion of fossil collecting is research. You should really look into the legality of collecting in parks and at roadcuts. Some parks allow and even encourage it. (Beltzville State Park, Montour Preserve Fossil Pit, Swatara Gap State Park) Other places may not. It is incumbent on you to research whether collecting somewhere is legal or not. Other places, like private property, usually require permission. This means researching who owns the land, and writing, emailing, or approaching the owner for permission to collect on their property. Fossil hunting has been rising in popularity, especially during the past year. People are looking for things to do out and away from everyone. The best approach is to research what places have fossils, who owns the land they are on, and then, ask for permission. Most State Parks do not allow collecting, but some do. It can be confusing, so when in doubt, ask. This is where joining a club ( I know you are averse to it at this time) can come in handy. Meeting more experienced locals who know the sites, the legality, and who can get access to sites not generally open to individuals (Quarries, and such) is worth the price of admission, usually. Talking to locals at the local coffee shop can be rewarding, and sometimes people will stop and ask what you are doing, and invite you to hunt on their property. I've personally found that a lot of people do not look down at the ground. So a highly trafficked area may not necessarily be low on finds. It really depends on what can be found there, and how many people are actually looking. Going to already known legal spots such as the ones mentioned above, can be a great way to get your feet wet, and learn what to look for. Many places are away from the crowds, but many are starting to become more populated as this hobby gains popularity. It is all a matter of you get out of it what you put into it. Or as Uncle Siphuncle is known for saying, "To the motivated go the spoils!"