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Below is an example of a Box Crinoid I was lucky to find in 2017 with the Cedar Valley Rock and Mineral Society in 2017. This quarry can produce Devonian Phacops, Greenops, Crinoids and Fish parts, besides lots of brachiopods . Been going here and the Conklin quarries for close to a decade. Finally found a complete Crinoid. This one is a Camerate Crinoid, more common name Box Crinoid.

Does anyone know where I could find or purchase "A preliminary stratigraphic study of the galena group of winneshiek county, iowa" ?

Two weeks ago my wife and I experienced a wonderful a trip to Iowa for fossils and football. We started the weekend off great by attending the Iowa /Ohio State football game. We are buckeye through and through and being a visitor at sporting event such as this just adds to the ambiance. In preparation for our game, I created 10 necklaces out of buckeyes interspersed with scarlet and grey beads. They were heavy on my neck as I enter the stadium. But each was created for the purpose of finding 10 special individuals to place them on. So by games end, my neck feels the lightened load. My favorite recipient was a rabid Iowa fan whose wife insisted on getting a picture of him with the buckeye beads draped around his neck. This gentleman and I decided to make this necklace a traveling trophy. He keeps it if Iowa wins the next time. If OSU wins, he must find a buckeye fan to carry on our new started tradition of passing the necklace to the victor. Hopefully future recipients can enjoy the camaraderie that the two of us did. I do want to congratulate all Iowa fans for a game well played! The better team (Iowa) won that day. Here is a view of the buckeye trees on my farm in Minnesota that donated their nuts for the necklaces. Spruce trees outline the buckeyes spelling "Go OSU". The primary purpose for putting my football report in with my fossil excursion is to publicize what Iowa does during the time out between first and second quarter. A children's hospital was recently built next to the stadium and a Hawkeye student, through social media, has gotten the fans to take the time during this "intermission" to turn and wave to all of the children pressed against the glass on the 15th story of the hospital. It brought tears to my eyes seeing 78,000 fans providing such pleasure to the many who peared down upon us. Even the Buckeye football players, who are supposed to be discussing football strategy, got caught up in it!!! I am proud of them. My plan initially was to stay in town and participate in our fossil club's trip to a local quarry the next day. But motel rooms that my wife would accept staying at were all booked. As a replacement for some good old Devonian hunting, we elected instead to head to Burlington in search of Mississippian crinoids the next morning. Lodging was not a problem there. Up early, I headed to a quarry site mentioned in some of the research I had done the previous night. It sounded promising on paper. But upon arrival at the quarry , it became apparent visitors were NOT welcomed, unlike what my research said. A sign saying "No Trespassing, Violators will be Prosecuted" greeted me. A sign a little further up the access was visible so I strolled up to see what it said. "You are now on video surveillance" gave me some butterflies in my stomach. I looked further down the lane and a third sign was present just before the gate into the quarry. Of coarse I had to see what it said. To my surprise, the final sign said Take Another Step, The Bead of My Shotgun is on You. Wow!!! I pity anyone that took that next step. My steps were backwards, and I retreated to the truck. As I sat there deciding where to go instead, a smaller sign was peaking out of the weeds next to me and it had the owner's name (Puc) and phone number on it. Do I dare call this owner very early on a Sunday morning? Of coarse!! I think I made the call just to talk to the creator of these unique no trespassing signs. After 4 or 5 rings, long enough for me to second guess my decision to call, someone in a deep baritone voice picked up. I explained who I was and why I was interrupting his weekend. After a long pause he replied that "the government" would stick me with a $20,000 fine if I allowed you into the quarry. Then for the next 10 minutes, he entertained me with what he meant by "the government" and it wasn't good. Quite suddenly, he quit his rampage and exclaimed, give me 5 minutes and I will be down there. I was going to target practice with my pistol anyways. That was a long 10 minutes as I sat in my truck wondering am I going to get to fossil hunt or is he coming to put the bead of his pistol on me. You must know the outcome since I am here to tell the story. A beat up pickup arrived slightly later than expected and a tall strong shouldered weathered man stepped out without pointing a gun though he carried it in his hand. That was a good sign. He reminded me of Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies Show pictured here for you young bucks who may not recognize him. I was invited into the scale house as he told me about the quarry's history and his gun collection and a little more about politics. No exaggeration, an hour later, Puc finally said I will show you the quarry's rocks. And away we went. My own private hunting grounds with a guide!! Here are some of my finds: After 2 hours, I was enjoying myself tremendously but needed to take a break. Leaning against a 6x6x10 ft rock, I took a swig of cold coffee and as I sat the cup down, I noticed something on the underside of this large boulder. It was a nice crinoid!!! I just had to extract it from its matrix. I thought this will be easy, as I tried to fire up my ancient cement saw. No go! I anxiously waited 10 minutes and tried to fire it up again. No such luck. So out came my chisels and hammer. After 30 minutes of banging away, Puc came over (he was target practicing) to see what the commotion was. I showed him the specimen I was attempting to release from this boulder. My suspicions were that he had no idea what it was, but he sensed how important it must have been to me. I was instructed to quit pounding and he will be back in a bit. A few minutes later, I hear the roar of an engine and then a LARGE yellow piece of equipment came towards me. It was a jackhammer on wheels, dwarfing my pickup as it approached!! Puc asked me to point out the location on the boulder again and then had me step back. With precision, he whittled that rock down, eventually breaking the fossil free without a bit of damage. What a day!! What a find for me. And most importantly, what a new friendship was made. One lonely man and one fossil freak! I promised him that I would be back.

I found this neat rock at a rock bar near wagon wheel bridge in boone ia. When I got home I saw this and am so curious can anyone tell make what it is... needed to use jeweled glass to really c it this is the best my phone can do