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Showing results for tags 'Saint Clair'.
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First of all, I would like to thank the Reading Anthracite Company for graciously allowing us access to their property near Saint Clair, PA. Our fossil hunt was a blast, and I would also like to thank the two Reading Anthracite employees who showed us how to get there, as well as directed us down the trail to the site itself. My family, as well as some other homeschooling friends, were allowed access to the site for our homeschool field trip. I handed out some pictures of ferns we might find, as well as some other general information about the Pennsylvanian period and PA coal mining, and then we walked down the trail to the site. We poked around some of the broken shale near the entrance, but it wasn't really that great. However, once we walked further into the site we started finding ferns like crazy. We found plenty of Alethopteris, a few Neuropteris pinnules and and a few other plants. We took some of the larger shale chunks from other peoples' old holes and split those, and we got some great ferns. My favorites are probably some of the nice Sphenophyllum stems and leaves I found! They weren't as common as ferns, but I love the look of all the little leaves arranged along the stem like that. We picked up some great ferns from the more weathered stone, but near the end of our fossil hunt I walked to the other end of the fossil site. I was annoyed that I had spent all my time closer to the entrance, because when I walked further in I found a lot better preserved ferns. I grabbed as many as I could carry, walked back to my backpack, but then we had to leave. We had an awesome fossil hunt, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Hopefully, I taught my friends and family at least something about fossils from this trip It is getting dark now, but tomorrow I'll take some photos of the fossils. For now, here's a pic of the site: I am very glad that they allowed us access to the site. We were allowed access because it was an educational school field trip, but this gives me hope for other closed sites. Maybe, by setting an example of good fossil hunters, these sites may once again be opened. We can only hope!
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