Where to find PA Fern Fossils

[belemnite]

Hello, I was wondering where to find PA fern fossils. I've heard of both the Carbondale and St. Clair sites, but I've read these are both closed to collecting. Where else could I find some decent fern fossils? I am from NJ (so this would have to be on the East/Central parts of PA for a day trip).

[EMP]

I've heard Centralia has stuff. IIRC the Graffiti Highway leading into town has some shale/sandstone exposures along the road, possibly from the Llewellyn Formation, and I've heard of people finding fossils in the rocks strewn about town (it was built on top of a coal mine, and there's a bunch of exposed rock because of the mine fire underneath. From what I've heard the mine fire is no longer burning underneath the town and has mostly moved off to the north/east, but you should still be careful for obvious reasons). There's also small exposures throughout the Ashland-Centralia area along the roads. Don't know if they have  "decent" fern fossils though. I had a book on Anthracite Coal Field plants/sites from the PA geological survey, but it's not currently in my possession. Maybe there's a PDF online that lists some of the sites. 

 

I also remember seeing some outcrops along the road in the vicinity of another one of those former coal towns, I think it was one of the ones south of Centralia. Basically though in that area the mountains are made of sandstone and the valleys of shale, and the best fern fossils occur in the shale. So my advice is if you don't get any tangible leads to just spend time scouting the area and hitting outcrops that way. It's all late Devonian-middle Pennsylvanian sedimentary rock out there, so you should at least have the chance of finding some ferns. My next advice is that typically the sandstones don't have as abundant fossils as the shales, and those that they do have aren't as well preserved, so spending time in the valleys would maximize your potential. Finding some good geological maps of the area would help pinpoint where specific formations are and help narrow down search locations (my bet is if you're looking for ferns you'd want to hunt in the Llewellyn Formation, the same one from St. Clair and I believe Carbondale). 

[belemnite]

Thanks EMP, yeah I read something about the Centralia as well, and coupled with what you mentioned that area could definitely be worth checking out. I was also thinking of potentially trying the Joliett site.

[belemnite]

So I went to Centralia, and did find some ferns (and the route I took went by Deer Lake, so got a bit of a bonus collecting there). The Centralia ferns weren't quite as good or prevalent as St. Clair, but it was definitely worth the trip, and with the St. Clair spot closed the Centralia spot is probably one the better ones around for ferns.

[EMP]

On 6/23/2020 at 8:32 PM, belemnite said:

So I went to Centralia, and did find some ferns (and the route I took went by Deer Lake, so got a bit of a bonus collecting there). The Centralia ferns weren't quite as good or prevalent as St. Clair, but it was definitely worth the trip, and with the St. Clair spot closed the Centralia spot is probably one the better ones around for ferns.

 

Good to know. I found the PGS book about plants in that area if you were still interested. St. Clair is unfortunately one of the sites mentioned in it, but there's another one you might be interested in. 

[belemnite]

On 6/25/2020 at 2:41 PM, EMP said:

 

Good to know. I found the PGS book about plants in that area if you were still interested. St. Clair is unfortunately one of the sites mentioned in it, but there's another one you might be interested in. 

Yeah sure, it might be a while until I get back out that way but I am always interested in hearing about different sites.