Dry Dredgers Edrio Dig 2000

Photos and Report by Bill Heimbrock

A special thanks to William Hemmer Sr of Hemmer Industries, the property owner who made this dig possible

Thanks also to the Dry Dredgers who participated. They include John Tate, Tom Bantel, David Sligar, Debby Peel, Charlotte Cox, Rich Fuchs, Clyde Schrickel, and Ron Fine. And, of course, thanks to the valued professionals and publishing amateurs in our group who provided guidance and assistance. They are Dave Meyer, Carl Brett, Colin Sumrall, Steve Felton, Dan Cooper and Jack Kallmeyer.

Friday, March 17, 2000

Click here for some nice photos of the work done Friday!

Colin Sumrall and Paula Work joined Bill Heimbrock as they break ground on the Rafinesquina pavement. Also attending were Carl Brett and William Hemmer Sr., the property owner. One Edrio was found on the pavement that day.


Here is a map of the pavement showing the area that Colin and Paula uncovered.

Saturday, March 18, 2000

Click Here for some nice photos of the work done Saturday!

Bill Heimbrock, Dave Meyer, John Tate, Tom Bantel and David Sligar removed most of the clay from the Edrio layer and some of the shale.

No dense population of edrios were found that day, but four nice edrio specimens were uncovered along with a very impressive pavement of Rafinesquina Brachiopods.

Carl Brett and Prof. Gordon Baird of the Univ of NY at Fredonia visited late in the day to examine the strata exposed on the hillside in more detail.


Here is a map of the pavement showing the work completed after Saturday.

Sunday, March 19, 2000

It rained all day today. Debby Peel arrived to continue the work, but it was too wet to make any progress. I (Bill Heimbrock) dug a drainage ditch to begin removing water from the surface. There were no pictures.

Monday, March 20, 2000

It continued to rain all day today. No visits were made to the site.

Tuesday, March 21, 2000

It rained all morning and part of the afternoon. Bill Heimbrock visted the site in the afternoon to drain the lake with additional ditches.

Bill Heimbrock used a broom to sweep the water into the new ditches.

Click here for pictures of the site after Tuesday's work.

Wednesday, March 22, 2000

No rain today. Bill Heimbrock continued the draining of Lake Rafinesque and continued removing clay from the end of the pavement closest to the ground level. Some water remained on the pavement at the other end.

Click here for photos of the site after Wednesday's work.


Here's a map of the site showing the work after Wednesday.

Thursday, March 23, 2000

Another day WITHOUT rain! Bill Heimbrock spent a couple of hours in the afternoon cleaning the area where the clay was removed yesterday and found one Edrio in that area. He also dug a couple of test 1ft by 2 ft areas in the untouched section to determine the viability of the pavement. He determined that on one end, the pavement ends with thick, broken pieces of pavement, while at the other end, the shale overburden becomes thick and hard and the rock under the Rafs becomes thin. Only a wide strip in the middle is usable for this survey.

Click Here for photos of the site after Thursday's work.


Here is a map of the area showing in light green where the test digs indicate that usable pavement resides.

Saturday, March 25, 2000

On Saturday, the Edrio Dig continued as Tom Bantel, Charlotte Cox, Rich Fuchs and Bill Heimbrock pick away at the dried mud and flaky shale that rested on top of the Rafinesquina bed.

Click Here for some great photos of the people who were out Saturday.

Sunday, March 26, 2000

On Sunday, the Edrio Dig continued with cleaning the surface that had been uncovered on Saturday. Attending were Clyde Schrickel, Ron Fine and Bill Heimbrock.

Click Here for nice photos of Sunday's work.

Here's a map of the site after Sunday. The red dots indicate where Edrios were found. 30 specimens were spotted (some represented by a single dot) with a likelihood that many more rest beneath the clay and mud.

For more information on Edrios, see the Dry Dredgers Web page "Some Edrioasteroids of the Cincinnatian" by Colin Sumrall.

Monday, March 27, 2000

It rained Sunday night. This left about 1/3 to 1/4 of the pavement covered with water. Bill Heimbrock swept the water off the area; squirted clean water on the brachiopods and dabbed it up with a sponge. It also seemed that a deer wandered onto the pavement overnight, breaking one of the nylon strings that make up the grid and moving the other strings to one side. It only took a few minutes to repair the damage. We just hope the deer was okay.


Above is how the pavement looked after Sunday night's rain. Not too bad.


Here's how the pavement looked after it was swept and cleaned with a sponge.

Tuesday, March 28, 2000

It rained all night and most of the day today. The pavement was completely under water by the end of the day. There was nowhere for the water to go. All of the drainage trenches were full. I could do nothing but wait for the water to go down. There are no pictures, but see the pictures for Tuesday March 21. It looked the same today.

Wednesday, March 29, 2000

A sunny day! Bill Heimbrock went out to the site to drain Lake Rafinesquina. Colin Sumrall had previously planned to come to the site to record his data, but did not make it out due to the flooding. The pavement was still completely under water Wednesday afternoon so Bill swept the water into the new section of pavement that was cleared dug this past weekend and then swept the water onto the ground from there. The remaining water was mopped up with a sponge. Then the area was squirted with clean water to remove the mud from the tops of the Rafinesquina Brachiopods and the excess water taken up with a sponge. There still remains more mud on the pavement than was there Monday, but it should be okay now for Colin to come out and examine the Edrios.

There are no pictures today.

Thursday, March 30, 2000

This is the big day. Colin Sumrall, Dave Meyer and Carl Brett revisited the site ready to record all the site notes they can. Colin spotted and tagged Edrios while Dave wrote down the orientation, type and position of each specimen. Carl proceeded with counting all the Rafinesquina Brachiopods, bivalves and other fossils on each grid quadrant that had been roped off. Bill Heimbrock wrote down the numbers as Carl called them out. Colin used a red permanent marker to indicate the genera of the Edrio and an arrow to denote the direction of the anal pyramid.

Bill Heimbrock removed the jugs of water and the rocks bagged to indicate that they were found from the top of the pavement and took those materials home.

No pictures were taken that day.


The dig is officially concluded. There are additional steps, outlined as follows and subject to change.

1. Carl must complete the counting of Brachiopods. Half are counted to date. (Completed)

2. Dave Meyer expressed interest in doing a detail analysis of the orientation of the brachiopods. (Will happen using Colin's 1-meter segment.)

3. Bill Heimbrock will revisit the site before it rains and use a large sheet of plastic to map the position and shape of each rock fragment so it may be reassembled after it is disassembled at a later date. (In progress)

4. The pavement will be left in place thru April 15 so that Colin Sumrall can bring a small group visiting Cincinnati on April 15 to look at Edrio sites. The pavement will undoubtedly be flooded several times by then and will be under hard mud. Colin will have to consider what preparations must be done for the benefit of this group. (Trip has been canceled.)

5. After April 15, the pavement will be disassembled and removed from the site. It will be reassembled off-site, thoroughly cleaned and examined for additional Edrios. After the additional data is recorded, the pavement will be divided up among interested parties, with Colin Sumrall, Dave Meyer and Carl Brett getting first choices. (UPDATE: 1-meter square will be reassembled for Colin. The rest will be cleaned in pieces to search of more edrios. The aforementioned professionals will get first choice of specimens and the other specimens will be divided among the participants after they have been cataloged.)

This plan is subject to change without notice and is at the discretion of the property owners, the aforementioned professionals and Bill Heimbrock.

For More Information:

Visit the Dry Dredgers Web Site!

Email Bill Heimbrock. His Email address is billheim@cinci.rr.com

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