Not Quite Extreme Fossil Hunting

October 04, 2020

Not Quite Extreme Fossil Hunting

Last fall, I drove out to Centralia, PA, the famous burning town. The coal vein below the town caught fire in the 1950s, creating random sinkholes filled with toxic gasses. The town was abandoned. The buildings were bulldozed. Only the most foolish set foot in the town limits. Today, however, the fires have mostly followed the coal vein out of town. I was out once in September, just to check the lay of the place, then returned in October to find fresh "No Trespassing" signs. Darn!

Six weeks ago, I got a report that the signs were down. The person making the report said they double-checked with the locals in the next town and were told that yes, it was fine to go fossil hunting out there. So, today my hubby and I went to investigate. The signs were indeed own, replaced two with Keystone State logos. One banned motor vehicles. The other announced that the property owner agreed to allow game hunting but a permit was required. That was it. In we went.

The fossil outcrop is part of the Lewellyn Formation, which also runs through the now-closed St. Claire site. Lepidodendron, Calamites and Cordaites cover almost every inch of the shale. The impressions are coated with shiny, black graphite, white pyrophyllite and kaolinite, plus some bits of other colored iron oxides and even some shiny pyrite.

I only look close! My sweetie took this picture from the surrounding woods with a long lens.

The terrain is challenging, though. The outcrop is on a steep hillside made incredibly slick by a combination of smooth shale and scree that shifts with every step or even shift in weight. Normally, I am not put off by walking on scree, but this was a particularly steep, high slope and my first attempts to climb it were worrisome. The woods surrounding the slope are tangled with vines and briars. It's not unmanageable, but I did have to pick my way around. After that fist scouting mission last fall, though, I was prepared. I had rappelling gear with me and I knew how to use it!

My husband spotted me from the top and took pictures while I backtracked down the slope with my gear in my backpack. I could have hung there in the harness admiring the impressions in the smooth wall all day! Or picked up every bit of loose rock to see the tiny details. As it was, I took a little too long walking the perimeter to find the spot to secure the rope -- I was looking at everything as I walked and I ended up spending 3 hours in the woods!

The solid wall was not going to yield anything without power tools in most places, at least not without shattering what I was trying to extract. Nevertheless, I managed to find a spot where natural cracking loosened some 2ft wide plates that I could wiggle free.

Then I realized what I had overlooked in this plan - how do I climb back up with something too big for my backpack? A super-experienced rock climber I am not, but this kind of climbing does generally require two hands. I scooted my first slab up the hill while my loving spotter hauled me up from above. I'm not doing that again.

Undaunted, I went back down for another plate. This time, I decided to take it down instead of up. I rappelled easily down on my knees (hooray for heavy duty jeans!), letting the slab slide at my knees all the way down. At least, most of the way down. Ten feet to the bottom I realized that I should have purchased a longer rope. My 50ft rope brought me about ten feet from the bottom. Well, this was the plate I knew I wanted to bring home. I released the last bit of rope and did a controlled slide on my butt to the bottom, my prize in hand.

Now there is just one more fly in the ointment. I was at the bottom of the hill. The car was at the top of the hill. My wagon is at the top of the hill. The rock weighs about 15 lbs. There is a trail, but it is so rocky that I can't get the wagon up and down. I had to carry the thing, tired from that awesome climb, back to the top of the hill. With a backpack full of rocks, hammer, chisel, etc. Huff! Puff! I made it!

I came home with some beautiful specimens and some ideas about the next trip to a scree-covered slope. The rappelling gear is now a permanent part of my fossil hunting equipment. I will have to come up with a good way to slide large pieces down the hill safely while I have two hands on my rope. I need a tether to keep my pack from sliding down the hill when I'm using the contents or packing rocks. And, I need a longer rope!