To: bovik@CS.CMU.EDU
Reply-To: mleone@CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Fossil hunting
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 16:12:02 EST
Message-ID: <3467.730069922@ECONOMIC.MESS.CS.CMU.EDU>
From: Mark_Leone@ECONOMIC.MESS.CS.CMU.EDU

Here are some pointers on fossil hunting around Pittsburgh.

- Mark Leone, mleone@cs.cmu.edu

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Derek Beatty <beatty@cs.cmu.edu>

I went once to several places in West Virginia.  I don't remember exactly
where.  Our guides were a couple of grad students from Pitt's geology
department.  Your friend might try inquiring there.

The only place that I remember directions to was on I-79, literally.  It was
slightly south of West Virginia University, at an abandoned weigh station on
the northbound side.  There was lots of black shale visible in the hillside
above the barricade blocking the entrance, and that's where we looked.

The other places we went were on a hillside somewhere on a state highway in
West Virginia, and in a strip mine (we were there on a Saturday when it wasn't
being worked) in Pennsylvania, near the WV border.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

----------
From: Carol.S.Boshears@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU

Yes, Greene County-Charmichaels, PA by the stream near the cemetary.
Also near Uniontown.  My husband has mapped out some other locations
which we haven't yet visited.  No license is required to chip rocks!
Gently chisel/tap at fracture point to expose fossil.  The Carnegie
paleobotany dept. will also help your friends.

----------
From: Aimee Dechambeau <ad29+@andrew.cmu.edu>

Tell your friend that they might have some luck looking for fossils on
the airport side of the Sewickley Bridge. We spent alot of time rooting
around that roadcut for fossils -- mostly turned up little things like
shells, but I did find a beautiful impression of a fern at that location.

Whether or not anyone (like the police) would ask fossil hunters not to
stop there I don't know -- there's a place to pull a car off the road,
etc.; I can't imagine that there would be any problem.

Also, if you walk up the creek bed/path a little ways, there is a stone
carving of an indian head (on the right). This is pretty exciting for
little kids (they tend not to notice the spray painted names, etc.)