GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Geodes and Fossils in Tennessee
Saturday, August 15, 2015

So many people showed up to collect fossils and geodes that we almost ran out of parking spaces at the meeting site, but thankfully there was an overflow parking lot. The weather was iffy, but worked to our advantage at the first location. As everyone climbed around boulders collecting Ordovician marine fossils as well as fantastic flowstone specimens and flint, the cloudy conditions kept us from being roasted. The fossils were so abundant everyone easily got as many as they wanted. Tom Batcha found a boulder with coral on it and shared his find with others. Branson Prince extracted some excellent specimens of the coral as well as some beautiful flowstone/stalactite formations from some other boulders.

The next stop was at a GMS member's property. She gave field trip attendees a warm welcome by mowing a long swath in her pasture so we could drive all the way to the creek! Daniel Miller brought his homemade geode cracker and cracked several geodes for people. New members found some cubic quartz geodes on their first geode collecting trip! People were also finding lots of other pretty quartz geodes. A few fossils, suiseki, a salamander, and other oddities were found too. Lillie Phillips even found a piece of a moonshine jug! One incredible suiseki has a straight chambered nautiloid embedded in it.

At the third stop we had to wait for a thunderstorm to pass because we could not enter the creek with the threat of lightning. The creek was a bit higher than usual, but it just meant my favorite gravel bar was under water. No problem though, because there were plenty of other places to peruse. Many more geodes came out and thanks to hammers and chisels and Daniel’s geode cracker, lots of geode bellies got to see the sunshine, well, maybe more like overcast sky and light drizzle. Members found more outstanding suiseki too. Mary Porter found a beautiful highly silicified colonial coral specimen. So, after a warm, muggy, hot, thundery, drizzly day, everyone went home with their treasures. We started the day with an energetic, fluffy, clean, happy little Gilligan and came home with a tired, wet, dirty, still happy little Gilligan.

We can’t thank or GMS member enough for everything she did to make this trip a smashing success. She was an extremely accommodating host, she made access to the creek much easier by cutting steps in the bank, and she even walked around pointing out geodes and pretty flowers. Many thanks to the other private property owners for allowing us access to these incredible collecting locations. Thank you to Mickey McClain for pioneering the fossil site. And thanks to Charles Carter for organizing such a fun trip!

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
e-mail: