THE ANNUAL FIELD TRIP TO MT ORAB FOR 2006 HAS BEEN CANCELED. Another locality will be selected. The site is currently unable to handle the parking requirements. We apologize for your disappointment.
Saturday after the fourth Friday in May Each Year
This is the famous Mt. Orab Ohio trilobite locality that has yielded countless specimens of the trilobites Flexicalymene and Isotelus seen in museums around the world. Most of these are tagged with the donor's name Dan Cooper, now our field trip chairman. Dan purchased this land and used heavy digging equipment to expose the trilobite layers of the Arnheim formation. He then carefully removed exquisite examples of these trilobites and professionally prepared (cleaned) them for sale, Paleontological research and for museum displays. Dan has more recently sold the land, but the new owner has agreed to allow the Dry Dredgers to come here once a year for an annual field trip and dig for trilobites for a fee. The fee will be determined each year and will apply for each person choosing to dig. The owner gets to keep any Isotelus trilobite found that is longer than 5 inches.
Here is the site. As you may or may not be able to see from the photos, it is a ditch in which hand tools are used to carefully dig trilobite specimens from the shale layers.
Click on image to see an enlargement.
Photos Courtesy of Dan Cooper
Click here for a demonstration of how we dig trilobites on this site.
Here is a photo of Dan's display of Isotelus from Mt. Orab seen at
the Smithsonian!
Photo Courtesy of Dan Cooper
There are a few photos of Isotelus trilobites from the Mt. Orab
site that Dan has in his personal collection.
Photos Courtesy of Dan Cooper
The pictures below are of the trilobite Flexicalymene, also from
Mt. Orab.
Photos Courtesy of Dan Cooper
The Dry Dredgers have been invited to the Mt. Orab site three years in a row now and the new owner has consented in letting the Dry Dredgers make this an annual visit each year in May. This site is private property. The exact site location is not made public and visitors should attempt to not reveal the location. The Dry Dredgers are honored and pleased to be permitted to hold an annual field trip to this famous locality and extend the honor to our dues-paying members. Our deepest thanks to the land owner for his ongoing support and generosity.
Photos of past field trips to Mt. Orab by the Dry Dredgers
May 2005
May 2004
May 2003
May 2002
May 2001
September 2000
The Dry Dredgers and individual contributors reserve the
rights to all information, images, and content presented here. Permission to
reproduce in any fashion, must be requested in writing to admin@drydredgers.org.
www.drydredgers.org is designed and maintained by Bill Heimbrock.