Trammel Fossil Park (or other Southern Ohio sites)

[ShanLambert]

I will be visiting family around Christmas in Northern KY and was looking at trying out Trammel Fossil Park. This will be a new type of fossil hunting for me, as I am from SC and used to creek hunting for shark teeth and other sea fossils. Has anyone been to this park and would like to give opinions/advice/ pointers?

 

Thanks for any help! I'm excited to look for some new types of fossils!

~Shannon

[connorp]

I've visited there once briefly. You can found some pretty interesting stuff there, especially in the Miamitown Shale and Corryville. The different formations are marked by signs which is very helpful.

 

There's also some informational signs at the base of the hill.

 

The park gets a lot of visitors (compared to other sites), but you can still find nice stuff. You'll do best getting low to the ground, most stuff is small.

[minnbuckeye]

1 hour ago, connorp said:

 

The park gets a lot of visitors (compared to other sites)

As Connor says, this is a popular site. My humble opinion is that you need not cross the Ohio River to find great fossils. For example, use google earth and look at Highway AA (hwy9). Hundreds of road cuts exist along or in close proximity to this road and I would suspect the majority of them are fossiliferous. Either way, have fun  but leave your sifters at home!!! 

 Mike

[Mediospirifer]

I've been there once. 

 

The fossils available are mostly going to be brachiopods, bivalves, crinoid stem segments, corals, bryozoans, occasional trilobites, burrow traces, and other Paleozoic animals. The information plaques have descriptions and drawings of the most common and most intriguing fossils for the various layers. 

 

Fossils there are easy to find. If you don't see one on the upper side of the rock in front of you, turn it over! If you look at more than three rocks without finding something, I'll be surprised. 

 

When I went there, I started at the bottom, with a separate box (plastic "shoebox"es from a dollar store) for each layer, and paper towels to separate the rocks I wanted to keep. I didn't need any tools beyond that, as there was lots of surface float to pick through.

 

Have fun!

 

[erose]

Trammel is a wonderful little park. I have some great fossils from there including a couple of nice trilobites.  But as mentioned there are many locations in Kentucky and if you are in that northern Kentucky region I would just try any road cut and see what's there. Look at the Dry Dredgers web site for what can be found and where. http://www.drydredgers.org

 

Your biggest issue around the holidays will be weather. If the ground is frozen collecting can be a challenge. If the weather is not cooperating consider a visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center. They have a great natural history museum as well as the history and children's museum all under one roof. AND it is a really cool roof!  https://www.cincymuseum.org