[Rockhounds] Falls Fossil Festival this weekend!

[Alan Goldstein]

The Falls Fossil Festival is this weekend at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, IN across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY. The program and details can be found at www.fallsoftheohio.org/fossil_festival.html. Among the highlights:

* Speakers on the history of corals, preserving fossil heritage, fossils of animals which had tentacles (connected to a temporary exihibt at the park interpretive center), the history of crinoids, global climate change in eastern North America since the Devonian, fossil collecting tips, and fossil identification. 

* Teacher workshops on Indiana Geological Survey as an Educator Resource and Fossils of Kentucky.

* Collect fossils on the Hanson Aggregates piles - Waldron shale and Jeffersonville Limestone residuum. It is possible to find cystoids, blastoids, trilobites, corals, snails, brachiopods, and much more! 

* Collect fluorite, sphalerite, calcite, and barite from the mineral pile fresh from the dumps of the Ozark-Mahoning Co. in Rosiclare, IL. I found a beautiful specimen when we were spreading the pile with our Bobcat skid-steer loader on Monday. Currently I'm soaking it in HCl to remove the calcite and better expose the 1 cm cubes. 

* Scheduled hikes on the fossil beds - the river has been low this year and the coral beds are the best they been since the drought in 1999!

* Geo-craft activities for children.

* 15 vendors with minerals, fossils, books, jewelry, food, etc. 

* Another GREAT weather forecast. Highs both days in the low to mid 70's. We've not had a bad weekend since the even began in 1995. 

* The Kentucky Paleontological Society, Indiana Society for Paleontology and the Kyana Geological Society will be set up.

Lots of collecting opportunities in the area! A list is on the park's web site: www.fallsoftheohio.org. 

Alan Goldstein

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