Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / May 2004

It would help if you could say what kinds of fossils you want to find.
The states in question contain hundreds if not thousands of sites.

Ken

As Ken said, there are thousands of collecting sites in those five
states which are, taken together, bigger than a lot of countries.
I'll recommend three, but there really are a near infinite number of
others.

1.  U-Dig Fossils.  They charge money, You can check their web site
for details http://www.threedee.com/u-digArchive/index1.html.  Or you
can drive past their quarry entrance a mile or so and hike around.
You'll probably find something although the trilobites probably won't
be as nice as you'd get in their quarry.  Or you can do some research
on the Wheeler Shale and Marjum limestone and find your own site.  I'd
go with the commercial quarry myself unless the idea of a random hike
at fairly high altitude really turns you on.  Technically, collecting
in the House Mtns may not be legal, but it's unlikely that anyone will
hassle you as long as you stay out of their quarries and stick to
natural outcrops, road cuts, and such.  Carry water in the car if you
go out there it's pretty remote and the next vehicle may not come
along for hours or even days in many places.

2.  Fossil Fish Quarries at Kemmerer, WY.  There are a number of
these.  They charge money.  Unlike the House Mtn trilobite sites
mentioned above, foraging on your own probably won't get you fossils,
and may get you into trouble.  See
http://www.wyodex.com/cgi-wyodex/search.cgi?City=Kemmerer&County=Lincoln&Key=Mus
eums+&+Historic+Sites

3.  Road cuts in black shale near Wasta, SD.  Fragments of the
ammonite Baculites used to be fairly common.  They are quite
attracive.  I understand that spectacular specimens of other ammonites
are found from time to time.

I guess I should have been more specific. What I am looking for are
sites located in the green river formatoin and sites dating from the
late Jurassic through the late Cretaceous