Photos (except where noted) and words by Bill Heimbrock
The Dry Dredgers extend their sincere thanks to member Dan Cooper for taking time on his Saturday to give us a tour of his facility.
Winter Indoor Field Trips
A view of Cincinnati after a big snow on December
7, 2014 taken from the front of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
by Ron Fine.
The Dry Dredgers have endured the roughest winter for fossil hunting in a long time in Cincinnati Ohio, possibly since the formation of this fossil enthusiast group in 1942. The ground has been almost continuously covered with snow and ice since early December. Field Trip Chair, Bob Bross tried to have an indoor field trip in January to the museums of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. But bad weather canceled his plans. The trip is still being rescheduled. In December, member Bob Bergstein arranged with Vertebrate Curator Dr. Glenn Storrs to get a tour of the Dinosaur exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center. This was nearly canceled as 4 inches of snow arrived that morning. But many members were able to attend and got an excellent tour of the exhibit by Glenn Storrs and received a discount for the Omnimax presentation on the same topic. (Thanks Bob and Glenn!)
February 2014 was not a leap year and the Dry Dredgers monthly Friday night meeting was scheduled on February 28. This means the indoor field trip that Saturday morning was scheduled on March 1.
This month, the Trilobite King Dan Cooper, gave us an excellent tour of the new "Trilobites of America" fossil preparation laboratory in Covington, Kentucky. Dan formed this company with his sons, Jason and Ben. Here they accept jobs to prepare fossils of all kinds for exhibit.
The last time we visited Dan was back in November 2003, long before he and his sons formed the LLC. At that time, he invited us into his home to see fossil prep demonstrations using our own fossils. Dan and subsequent owners of the Mt. Orab Trilobite Farm, have been very generous in hosting trilobite hunting field trips to this famed locality (see 2013 2012 2009 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000)
The new fossil prep lab has plenty of work stations, as the photo below shows.
Right as we arrived, Dan Cooper unscrewed the cover of a new arrival - A beautifully prepared Isotelus trilobite in need of some touch up before going on display.
Dan gave us the full tour as well as showing us some of his before, during and after specimen preparations. He also explained materials, techniques and a description of the day-to-day operations.
There was a huge slab of rock propped up against the wall as
seen in the next 3 photos. This was a pavement lifted from the Walcott-Rust
Quarry. This slab has numerous prone trilobites among bryozoans.
That's all for this trip. Hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks
for having us, Dan!
Now let's see our March 2014 field trip to Southeast Indiana.
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