Cleveland Shale Localities And Hunting- Anyone Familiar?

[baybay]

I have been doing quite a bit of reading on the Cleveland Shale in the Cuyahoga county area lately and have been extremely impressed by what has been found in my own back yard. I understand so far that about 15 meters of the Cleveland Shale are exposed in the Big Creek Reservation area. I went searching today at the Memphis Rd Picnic area where I am almost 100% sure the shale was exposed. My main problem is actually locating the concretions that contain the fossils. I looked for any concretions that may have eroded out of the shale far out of reach, and was completely unsuccessful.

My question is this, is it worth ripping out chunks of the shale near the creek bed in hopes of exposing a nodule? My research has shown that most of the nodules are taken out far above my reach without a ladder or climbing equipment. I worry that I would be then searching the underlying Chagrin Shale for no reason. Furthermore, if anyone has any information about some accessible Cleveland Shale localities it would be greatly appreciated. In fact, any information about reliable localities in North East Ohio would be very helpful. I am also looking for a fossil buddy in the Cleveland/Akron area, if anyone is interested in partnering up and trying to scout out some productive locations! Don't hesitate to send a pm.

Regards

John

[jpc]

I did a field trip with SVP a few years ago to the Cleveland Shale deposits. We colletced a big ole concretion from someplace, and even got our picture in the Times Picayune (I think that's the name of the paper in Cleveland). There are a few sites and concretions around, but most of them, if not all, are in the park system that circles Cleveland, and collecting them is done only with a premit. There might be spots along Lake Erie, but I don't know. A lot of the fantastic material the Cleveland museum has from the Cleveland Shale was collected in the 70's when the local Interstate was being expanded.

Meanwhile, good luck and don't give up.

[MikeR]

I did a field trip with SVP a few years ago to the Cleveland Shale deposits. We colletced a big ole concretion from someplace, and even got our picture in the Times Picayune (I think that's the name of the paper in Cleveland). There are a few sites and concretions around, but most of them, if not all, are in the park system that circles Cleveland, and collecting them is done only with a premit. There might be spots along Lake Erie, but I don't know. A lot of the fantastic material the Cleveland museum has from the Cleveland Shale was collected in the 70's when the local Interstate was being expanded.

Meanwhile, good luck and don't give up.

The Times Picayune is the New Orleans paper. The Plain Dealer is the Cleveland paper. Everything else that jpc says is true. I lived in Cleveland for 5 years and belonged to the local club. We never collected the Cleveland Shale because much of it is on Metropark land and therefore off limits. There were a couple of dealers who had contacst/leases with local land owners to "legally" quarry. The fish that they sold at shows were fantastic however you would not only have to have a pro setup to prep them but also quite a bit of muscle to transport the large concretions out of the canyons.

Mike

[baybay]

Thank you both for the replies... I certainly won't give up yet! I think I may have located some exposed areas not too far from where I live and will continue to scout localities.