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Hi, about 30 years ago I stopped at a rock shop in Colorado. I was allowed to pick 4 geodes for a certain price. When they opened this chalcedony geode there was a horned coral in the middle with one crystal on the top of the horned coral. They tried to buy it back from me right away but I said no way!

Well I'm on my way to Utah for a new career opportunity and looked up the LaFarge quarry in Paulding Co. last night. This quarry is supplied with dump trucks worth of shale from the LaFarge quarry that pulls directly from the Silica Shale formation Devonian era. The location is in the middle of nowhere and my wife gave me one hour to look around. Soon I had my five month old daughter, Clara, strapped to my chest in a baby carrier and I was quickly scrounging around looking for fossils. I can tell you that I was not disappointed though I did not locate a complete Eldredgeops roller I did walk away with some very large brachiopods and the largest horned coral I've ever collected. To anyone seeking to collect fossils in the mid-west or Ohio, this location is a must. All this came out in under an hour of searching and some of these pieces could look good after some light preparation. See descriptions below: This place is in the middle-of-nowhere Ohio. The parking lot was gravel with a portable outhouse. The nearest gas station was about twenty minutes away. I was talking to @Kane about conglomerates of fossil bits and he noted similar compositions at both Penn Dixie and Arkona. I know there's a scientific term for what this occurrence is but I can't seem to recall the word at this time. Regardless I find these settings interesting as they don't seem to preserve anything exceptional, certainly not a complete trilobite but it's neat to see so much life in one piece of sedimentary rock. This particular rock is full of pieces of bryozoans, crinoids, trilobites, and brachiopods. Someday I'll invest in an expensive microscope to examine these different pieces. I usually don't keep horned coral but I couldn't resist keeping this one. The interior calcium based structures have crystalized and it is by far the largest horned coral I've ever picked up or seen in person though they can get bigger. There were Eldredgeop cephalons and pygidiums everywhere. Similar to Penn Dixie this is a really good sign that potential complete pieces, particularly rollers are present. I believe the terms of the site are that tools such as hammers and chisels are not allowed as the shale pieces are small and brittle enough to break in hand. I believe that a few years ago access to the official LaFarge quarry was granted but that was recently retracted and a number of amateur paleontologists wrote letters to the company requesting something be done to continue to provide access to the site. I'm really glad LaFarge goes out of their way to dump some scraps for people to pick through. Site admission is free and you can keep whatever you find. Large piece of an Eldredgeops segment sticking out of the matrix surrounded by brachiopod pieces. What a scene this must have been during the Devonian. The camera doesn't do this pyritized piece of shale justice. Hopefully I'll be able to take some micro pictures later of the square crystals. One of the larger Eldredgeops pygidiums I've ever seen and I read some sources last night that the trilobites in the Silica Shale can be very large. Almost every trilobite piece I came across at the site was very large. This pygidium is almost an inch wide. There were many spiriferid strewn throughout the site. Most had both halves and exhibited excellent color. Large cephalon. More pyrite. The large horn coral. More pyrite amidst a conglomerate of fossil pieces. A complete brachiopod out of the matrix. Front view of the brachiopod. I'll have to ID this one after some cleanup and polish. I really like the color on the corals and fossils at the site. This is a light tan. Another large complete brachiopod. A long spiriferid with what appears to be both halves. This one should prep out nicely. The desert of farms and trees of western Ohio. Corn, trees, and farms all around. Another good sized Eldredgeops cephalon. Yet another horn. Large Eldredgeops cephalon poking out. Not complete but gives me hope that there might be some complete specimens at the site.