by George Libby
We owe a special thanks to the Alabama Paleontological Society. On Saturday February 9th, they invited both the Georgia Mineral Society and Cobb County Mineral Society to attend one of their field trips to the Steven Minkin Fossil site. This was formally known as the Union Chapel coal mine. Extraordinary vertebrate and invertebrate tracks as well as beautiful preserved plant fossils are found there.
As a former coal mine this property was about to be reclaimed but the APS stepped up and brought the presence of the fossils to the attention of the Governor and then the significance of the site was brought before Congress to gain a special exemption from reclamation and the site was preserved. It is a very rare thing when rockhounds can actually influence our bureaucrats but this proves it can be done.
As far as the trip goes it was a beautiful day as we gathered to enter the field. Many of you have read some of my stories titled “Thomas The Train” which I had discovered really should have been titled “The Little Engine That Thought He Could”. This time I found he could not or at least not carry the same load and left while others were still collecting. Actually I just got tuckered out but then this is not about me.
Many of you know Dr. Bob. Everyone there does. He came up with a beautiful slab of a large terapod tract, probably Attenosaurus subulensis. Then Mickey came up with a large piece covered with Cincosaurus cobbi tracks. Many others also found tracks. For myself I did get one piece. When the sun strikes it, at the right angle, and if you have a great imagination you might be able to see a cobbi tract. It was such a great piece that I even named it “wishful thinking”. I don’t know anyone that came up with insect traces but I have a couple of pieces of invertebrate tracks and plant fossils were all over. No one went home empty. This was a coal mine so I was able to collect samples of coal and even took pictures of a “tree” that had seams of coal embedded in the bark.
All in all this was a great trip and if you could not make it, you will have to try for it the next time there is an open house here.
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