Dry Dredgers Field Trip
May 28, 2005
Mt. Orab Trilobite Farm, Ohio
The 6th annual Mt. Orab Trilobite Farm Field Trip was the biggest Dry Dredgers Field Trip ever with officially 92 members attending.
Bob Bross led this field trip. Bob began by asking everyone to raise their
hand if this is their first time to the Mt. Orab site. As you can see from the
photo below, most of the members raised their hands.
As was true with the previous years, we met at a designated location and car pooled to the site, since there is limited parking and because we would not publish the directions to the site. The site is private property and off limits except to those with unsolicited invitations from the owner. The Dry Dredgers are honored and very grateful to receive a yearly invitation to the famous site.
This year, like last year, however, we are limited to surface collecting only. We were asked not to dig because the trilobite layer is being worked on, currently, as part of a study.
With 92 members attending and some car pooling, parking was still a big
problem. It was muddy and we needed to leave an opening for cars to pass. So
everyone was parking in the tall grass (above). Other members rode their
motorcycles to save parking space.
On previous trips to this site, the most trilobites were found while surface
collecting in the first ten minutes. So members scoured the cast off piles from
previous years for the best finds. These are the areas that were pictured in our
older field trip photos where countless "bugs" were quarried.
Now the site is being dug by a limited few at the end of the ditch, near the creek.
Blue tarps also mark locations where active digging is underway.
Even our good friend, Jon Branstrator, a
professor from Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana, came for the first
time to study this awesome site. It was nice to see you again, Jon! (Hand trowel
use in non-restricted areas was permitted!)
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S