My hunting buddies and I went to an area about 45 minutes away in the western part of Jefferson County to hunt fossils on a gorgeous, warm day. One of my buddies was told by a friend of theirs that there was a pile of rocks in an area that needed checked out.
It was on land that had no trespassing signs which is usually the case on properties in the area? When we arrived the at the site we did look for any sign, and no trespassing signs...but across the road about every 20 yards there were visible signs. Reminding me of the old song, "...sign, sign everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery, breakin' my mind, do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign." What we saw that day was pile of rocks and then some! We go and investigate, and those piles of rocks had fossils in them!
From observation the site had been there for a while so were the rocks because of the appearance of weathering and exposure to the elements. It just appeared no one had visited the site for a very long time and the piles of rocks were just sitting there! On the surface of these piles I couldn't believe the plant fossils I was seeing, unfortunately most of those you picked up just shattered in your hands. Pic#1-3- Weather worn Lyginopteris Ferns
As we got acclimated to the area we just picked our pile and went to work collecting. I started digging beneath the surface and came across many slabs of ferns, some a mixture of different species like Mariopteris, Alethopteris and Nueropteris. Pic#1 & 2- Nueropteris ferns, Pic#3- Mariopteris
The main species I kept finding and found the entire area consisted of Lyginopteris ferns! Pic#1-10- Lyginopteris
Not only did we find those, but we also found your typical Carboniferous Period flora with them. Pic#1 & 2- Sphenophyllum, Pic 3 & 4- Calamite in matrix and 3D Calamite Stem cast
We all left with some really nice specimens and hope to get back there soon...then again the no trespassing signs might be up by then?
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