My kids have interest in hunting for fossils, so I try to seek out public places to where we are allowed to search. The first site we visited was in the town of Richmond, Indiana near the Ohio border. We stopped in the town to stretch our legs on a road trip east along I-70 to visit family in Dayton, Ohio.
The Richmond Fossil Park, 61 Bridge Ave, Richmond, IN 47374, is a small roadside park with part of the small Whitewater River running through it. The park is located in a valley about 50 feet deep the river has cut through the bedrock, and in doing so has exposed ancient sea creatures from the Ordovician period, about 443-460 million years ago. Back then, Indiana and western Ohio were below sea level and part of a large shallow, tropic ocean.
The park has exposed rock from the Whitewater Limestone formation, part of the larger Richmond Group geological formation. The formation contains some very well preserved fossils of brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids and an occasional trilobite.
There is an interpretive sign in the park explaining the geology and the types of fossils that can be found there. Near the sign is a pile of gravel from the river that kids and dig through to find a fossil. It was pretty clear most of the gravel in the pile was actually fossils. Within a short time the kids had a pretty good start to their fossil collection with some impressive pieces.
We walked along the shore of the river and just about every stone contained fossils.
This site is one the edge of some of the best fossil hunting areas in the U.S.
The Miami River, which cuts through western Ohio to Dayton and south to Cincinnati, is another good place to hunt fossils. We stopped at a couple spots along the river north of Dayton during out trip to pick through gravel shoals along the edge of the river. Nearly all of the river gravel is from fossil bearing rocks.
Further south in the areas around Cincinnati, just about anywhere where the bed rock is exposed, will have fossils. There are a few public parks in that area that are also open to fossil collecting in designated areas. This entire region was part of a large, shallow bay area that was teeming with life and the geology allows for very good preservation of the fossils.
Another public fossil collecting area we visited on this trip in 2019 is Oakes Quarry Park, 1267 E Xenia Dr, Fairborn, OH 45324, located on the east side of the Dayton area, just off I-675. It is an old quarry that is now a public park. There is a dedicated fossil collecting area on the far eastern side of the park, which is a pretty good walk from the parking lot. The fossils are embedded in larger boulders and slabs of stone, so you will need a rock hammer.
The quarry stone dates from the Silurian period, between 443 and 419 million years ago. We were able to find some small brachiopod shells, crinoids and bryozoan fossils. But, these are harder to collect than just walking along the rivers in this region.
