This group of Cub Scouts is from Fairbault. Their leader, Amber, had contacted me several months ago about teaching them a bit about fossils and fossil hunting when they came down to see Mystery Cave and camp at Forestville State Park. This is what Amber had to say in an email afterward: “…Your visit was the highlight of our weekend!”
We started off with a walk down the “Snail Trail” with examples of over 50 gastropods of the Ordovician then to “Time Tracks” looking at trace fossils. Onto “Trilobite Lagoon”, “Fisherite Float”, “Fossil Foolery” and flow stone they could touch and feel – not allowed in living caves like Mystery Cave. Then onto “Sea Lily Bed” and “Dinosaur Island”.
We strolled down “Brachiopod Lane”, “Moss Creature Mosy”, “Coral Reef” and over to “Cephalopod Lair” where they got to see hundreds of more small fossils many in hash plates. But I think the highlight was the Fossil Sandbox where they could dig their own fossils and minerals. I filled this sandbox with sand from the St. Peter Formation that is very fine and soft.
And “Shark Tooth Deep” where they got to search for fossil shark teeth, stingray teeth, and fish & snake vertebrae.
A walk on the “Bev Formation” around the koi pond showed them fossils in the rock retaining wall made up the the Stewartville member of the Galena Formation.
Armed with a very basic understanding of Ordovician fossils and with their own fossil finds and shark teeth in hand we went back into the garage where I showed them Geologic Bedrock Formation maps…
Dry aquariums filled with my best fossils in an Ordovician seabed display…
They got to see glowing rocks and fossils under blacklight – a big hit!
They made fossil casts, prepped fossils with an engraver, made shark tooth jewelry, and even broke rock outside to see what fossils may be hidden in it.
What was to be a two hour tour turned into 3 hours as the kids burned off some energy playing on the tire swing and “Princess Swing”.
And the families decided to picnic in my “park”. 😀
Even the adults had fun with dads on the tire swing and in the hammock, moms asking questions about Three Sisters Gardening – a Native American technique/philosophy – and quite an intense discussion on agates when I showed one couple the 2 pound or better agate I have, that is fossilized, and how agates look in the rough and were scattered by glaciation across this area.
A wonderful day with a lot of learning packed in as well. 😀
