My Kind of Town!!!!!

[minnbuckeye]

 

 

 

As the title says, this is my kind of town, excited to have collectors come and find fossils. Most of the country is neutral or negative to this hobby of mine. So it is worth putting the word out supporting a community like this.  The Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve is located 1 mile west of Rockford on County Road B47. It is a fun and easy place to collect in the Cerro Gordo Member of the Lime Creek Formation, Devonian. If other cities exist that promote fossil collecting, please show us by adding to this thread.

[piranha]

[digit]

I've driven by Rockford plenty of times while traveling from the Chicago area to the little town of South Beloit (on the Illinois side of the state line just below Beloit, Wisconsin). The tiny little flooded gravel quarry now known as Pearl Lake is the favorite open water checkout location for newbie scuba divers within a couple hour's drive. With temps around 55F and visibility on a good day of 5 feet it was a challenging location both as a student and as an instructor. Tammy and I always laughed about folks who get scuba certified in places like Fiji as subsequent dives have a difficult time living up to initial checkout dives in a paradise like that.

 

On my next visit to see family in Chicago I really do need to budget some time to visit the Burpee Museum and may be explore the Devonian a bit.

 

http://burpee.org/

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[minnbuckeye]

29 minutes ago, digit said:

I've driven by Rockford plenty of times

 

@digit I am sad to admit, it is NOT Rockford, Illinois but Rockford, IOWA. Only 250 miles further west. Though the Illinois Rockford does have some fossils.

[RandyB]

Not cities, but publicly accessible and free fossil collecting encouraged locations:

• The Montour Preserve Fossil Pit is located at 160 Sportsmans Road, Danville, PA 17821 where you can collect devonian age fossils.
• Big Brook Nature Preserve in NJ lets you collect a couple of cretaceous marine fossils from the brook, 95 Hillsdale Rd, Colts Neck, NJ 07722

[digit]

25 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

 

@digit I am sad to admit, it is NOT Rockford, Illinois but Rockford, IOWA. Only 250 miles further west. Though the Illinois Rockford does have some fossils.

Dooh! That's a longer roadtrip.

 

Imagine Rockford not being a unique name--next thing you're going to tell me there are two Portlands and more than one Springfield.

 

Still need to get over and see the Burpee Museum. As a kid in Chicago I was sitting mostly on the Silurian bedrock that underlies most of the Chicago area. We went to campgrounds west of Chicago where there is a nice patch of Ordovician along the northern edge of the state. The lakes at these campgrounds often had rip-rap boulders along shore to reduce erosion. I may have been the only camper to bring a hammer and stone chisel as part of my camping gear.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Mark Kmiecik]

20 hours ago, digit said:

On my next visit to see family in Chicago I really do need to budget some time to visit the Burpee Museum and may be explore the Devonian a bit.

 

Tell Jane "Mark says hi".