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I've posted for about a month but haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Nick and live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I started collecting Petoskey stones (Hexagonaria percarinata) as a kid when we vacationed on Lake Huron in the summer. I had some other odds and ends I couldn't identify. But I caught the bug this summer when I visited a couple of beaches on Lakes Michigan and Huron with tons of crinoid fossils, columnals, gutter casts, horn coral and lots of fascinating hash. Next week, I'm going back to beaches I visited this summer to further explore.

Detroit's new 93-lb Petoskey stone dwarfed by Up North monstrosity Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press, Oct. 11, 2017 http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/10/11/petoskey-stone-detroit-up-north-alpena/753507001/ https://www.facebook.com/UpNorthLive/posts/1647437341967622 DNR still wants to talk about 'unusual find,' Petoskey stone Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press, Sept. 25, 2015 http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/09/25/petoskey-stone-finder/72806774/ http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/09/24/michigan-petoskey-stone-boulder-lake/72763536/ DNR to give 92-pound Petoskey stone new home in Detroit by Roxanne Werly, October 10th 2017 http://upnorthlive.com/news/local/dnr-to-give-92-pound-petoskey-stone-new-home-in-detroit Yours, Paul H.

Last summer my wife and I took a side trip on our way to Mackinac Island to hunt for Petoskey stones along the shores of Lake Michigan at Little Traverse Bay.Petoskey stones are a fossilized rugose coral, Hexagonaria percarinata, found in the Gravel Point Formation of the Traverse Group from the Devonian era.Glaciers deposited chunks of this coral that were subsequently rounded by wave action. When dry, the stone resembles ordinary limestone but when wet or polished using lapidary techniques, the distinctive mottled pattern of the six-sided coral fossils emerges. I hand polished this piece and had it set in a pendant by a local jeweler. Another form of fossilized corals are also found in the same location,Charlevoix stones.Charlevoix stones are Favosites an extinct kind of tabulate coral. While hunting for Petoskey stones I found this Actinostroma. Apparently these stromatoporoids are common but I thought that this one was a well preserved specimen.