The Southeast Federation of
Mineralogical Societies, Inc
The Friendly Federation
Founded in 1976 to serve.

DMC Program of the SFMS Field Trip Committee

An Official Field Trip of The Rome Georgia Mineral Society, Rome GA (HOST)

An Official Field Trip of the Knoxville Gem and Mineral Society

9:30 AM EST
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Durham Mines, Walker County, Georgia
Pennsylvanian Age Plant Fossils
Rockcastle Formation

The Durham Mines (in the NW corner of the state of Georgia) are Georgia’s best locality for beautifully preserved Paleozoic plant fossils. Commonly referred to as ‘Fern Fossils”, but more accurately described as “Coal Fossils”, the site offers a wide variety of species: Lycopods such as Lepidodendron; giant horsetails such as Calamites (and its leaves known as Annularia); and seed ferns such as Pecopteris and Alethopteris. You can occasionally find fossilized seeds. For identification purposes, we will provide a sheet to get you started, but any good fossil book will be useful as well when you get home. The fossils are found by splitting the abundant shale at the site. Most will yield twigs and bark, but with persistence you will find good leaves.

Directions: From Lafayette, Ga. follow GA Hwy. 136 West for 20 miles, to GA. Hwy 157. Turn right, going North on GA Hwy. 157 for 6.0 miles. Durham Rd. will be on the left. Turn left on Durham Rd. The mines and the parking area are .50 (1/2) mile on the right. Drive time from the intersection of US27 and GA 136 West in Lafayette, is approximately 30 minutes. If you are getting to Lafayette from I-75 at Exit # 320, Hwy 136, allow 1 hour and 10 minutes to the site from that exit. From Atlanta, at the intersection of I-285 and I-75 North, allow 2.50 hours total, using GA136 Exit #320. Meet at the site.

What to bring: Bring digging tools. A flat chisel and hammer are essential. A small cart or hand truck may be useful for hauling larger pieces of take home material. Also, bring lunch and fluids. This is a good site for children. Any pets MUST be on a leash at all times.

Special: This field trip is being offered during one of the "open gate" Saturdays of The Lula Lake Land trust, a non profit organization protecting the Rock Creek watershed on Lookout Mountain. There are two beautiful and spectacular waterfalls located on a portion of the Trust site, which is 4.50 miles north of Durham Rd. on Hwy 157, and on the right. This is an ideal spot for lunch, and further site seeing after working the mines.

Weather: This site is located on a section of Lookout Mountain within Georgia. Conditions on the mountain can some times be different than the surrounding valleys. The field trip will be cancelled if there are any winter weather advisories (watches or warnings) issued for Walker Co., Ga. by the National Weather Service 12 hours in advance of the meeting time, or for the date of the trip. The make up date would be the following Saturday, 2/4/06.

Contact Information:

Jeff Deere, Rome Ga.
Mineral Society Field Chair
Phone: (770) 386-5447
e-mail: jdeere@adelphia.net

Field trips are open to all members of associated clubs of the DMC program of the SFMS Field Trip Committee  and to all members of SFMS member clubs who have provided their membership with SFMS liability insurance. Because of insurance requirements, members of the GENERAL PUBLIC are NOT invited on this or any DMC program field trips! DMC Program / SFMS Field Trip committee's pur-pose: To collect field trip information from it's member societies; schedule and coordinate field trip dates; disseminate field trip information to all member clubs so that each member society may publish this information as one of their "official" scheduled field trips.