st clair pa fern fossil trip

[rockshine]

Sure would like to wallpaper my cave with those. Are the golden tones the remains of the pyrite?

[Ray]

Great haul! I would love to do that some day.

[downeast]

Can you send me direction via PM? Thanks.

[Ryan]

Nice haul dude! I have a few chunks of fern from out that way. Its cool stuff.

[CrossfireBusiness]

downeast contact me .. rockshine I am not really sure but thats what I was thinking as well .. I am not at all familiar with Pyrophyllite .The facts are that the golden ones were collected from a huge 250 lb chunk separated apart from everything else .. This had me thinking as well .The info I posted was copied form another website .. yes Iam guilty !!!! but it was so easyThis piece atleast when I arrived was on the surface and could have been do to weathering Maybe someone will chime in with more info on what happens to the pyrophylite when weathered .. I sure would like to know ! Would be nice to hear its pyrite though ,... sure looks the color !!!And I notice that the other black pieces with no color at all seem to have a different glare to them .. kinda metallic looking !Thanks Greg

[susie q]

The Pyrophyllite will flake off over time or if it's subjected to rubbing against other plates, it will wear off so they must either be coated with a protective film or protected from anything rubbing against the ferns. I had one little fern literally peel away from the plate in just the time it took from driving down there till I reached home... less than a 3 hr. drive, I carefully glued it back in place.

The ones that are yellowish/golden in color is staining due to the heavy amounts of iron in the ground. Some collectors have found red, blue and green ferns though I have never seen them myself. The white and yellow ones are the majority of what will be found. I do have one that is beautifully silver in color, similar to the one in your third pic CrossFB.

[CrossfireBusiness]

thanks for the info .. i had washed all of these and noticed a considerable amount of the pyrophyllite wash away but atleast everything wasnt turning black ... including the walls .. but something tells me the stained yellow ones wont dissapear .. they pretty much stayed the same after the bath .. thanks Greg !

[gsellis]

Oh Wow! I did not know where St. Clair was. Last night, my wife and I were looking at Pottsville to see where Yuengling was. We are going to do the tour. Well, on the Sat map, I saw the structures and told her that those looked like ones you might find fossils in. Wow!

[Ryan]

Yuengling! Bah! Iron City beer with burned sugar in it! Lol. Just teasing. ;-) I have noticed in my travels that beers like Yuengling, Iron City, and Rolling rock are delicacies elsewhere but in PA, where theyre made, we could take it or leave it. Theres so much of it round our neck of the woods. Rolling rock used to be a refreshing pale ale with a nice taste and no hangover till it sold to budweiser and started coming from missouri. Now its skunked easily and not so light and crisp in taste. The glass lined tanks of old LaTrobe did indeed make a smoother beer....whattya mean this post isnt about rocks? Its called rolling ROCK afterall!

Anyhow, George, if you do come up this way to do a beer tour, I hope you get the chance to collect some nice rocks. Eastern Pa has everything from fossils to pegmatite, iron and copper ore bodies to jurrassic diabase. Greg would be a good dude to ask, good spots all over out there. Dont miss the pyro at phoenixville! Beer and rocks, sounds like a superb getaway.

[rockshine]

Ryan, you are losing your touch. From the old Ryan, before you became "Expectant father-in-waiting" we could have expected to see some great photoshopping of beercans and fernfossils and

[meta99]

Did someone say beers and rocks?! Don't forget to notify us of that trip! Remember, John homebrews beer that'll stand up to any of the great microbrews.

George: If you go thru Pittsburgh on your way, we can tell you the names of any number of brewpubs with great food and great beer....it made all the college tour trips when our kids were in HS worthwhile!

Sue

[Ryan]

We are a bunch of drunks. "A drinking town with a football problem" as we call it. :-)
Thats the wrong side of the state tho. We have a few ferns and shells out here but nothing crystalizes out here besides snow, ice and roadsalt on the windshields. Hence I belong to clubs in other states. Good beer, good food, good sports, bad horribly boring geology. Unless you collect coal....

[gsellis]

Nov 30, 2011 2:12:14 GMT -5 Ryan said:

Dont miss the pyro at phoenixville! Beer and rocks, sounds like a superb getaway.

Our hotel for a few days is less than 10 miles from Pickering Valley GC. Never seen anything from there to move it on the priority list.

[Craig]

Excellent Haul!!!!
My Grandparents lived outside Johnstown and I would do a lot of Fossil Hunting up that way. I'm not sure how far you are from Johnstown but I have some excellent places to dig and I'd be happy to direct you to them ;D Even though it doesn't look like you need my help . GREAT FINDS!!!!
Thanks for all the Pictures.

Take Care,
Craig

[gsellis]

For St. Clair, does anyone know the coal company and where to contact them to gain access? The web has conflicting information about access to the site and I don't want to do the wrong thing.

[gsellis]

The company is Reading Anthracite. I contacted their permitting person and there is no public access to the fossil site. There is a $125/person ATV permit for the year.

readinganthracite.com/access-permits/2012access_certificates.php

I did pass on Rick's email if they ever considered changing the policy.

[susie q]

Reading Anth. Co. doesn't own all of the St. Clair site, they actually own 1/5 of the property. They are charging for a permit now but that opens up access to all their properties, not just St. Clair. The other property owner who's land all the digging pits are on has no problem with collectors going there as long as they are not commercial or blackmarket businesses in nature, they are the ones that nearly got the site shutdown years ago when they went in with heavyduty equipment and removed massive amounts of plates and undermined the backwall area that caused alot of trees to cave into the quarry and die...they, the owners were very pissed about this and with just cause.

It has taken years to regain their trust and as long as you are a casual collecter, respect their property and do no damage to the site..they are fine with you collecting there. It is quite a hike from the parking area to the quarry, bring a wagon or such to pull your finds back to your vehicle. If caught driving into the quarry without proper permits and permissions..the fines are quite hefty.

St. Clair is a nice place to collect at and as long as people show the owners and the land the respect they deserve..hopefully it will be accessable for collectors for a long time to come.

[gsellis]

Thank you Susie! We wanted to do that along with a trip to Yuenling while we are up there. My wife shares the family name with the formation as her family is from the region. This is the second time she has wanted to go to a rock site (Glendon was the other). So it is thrilling to go!

[susie q]

Mmmmm..Yuengling and fossil ferns, doesn't get any better than that.. ;D If you have the time, just down the road from St. Clair site, about 10 miles or so is the Deer Lake site for Mahantango formation fossils..brachiopods, crinoids, trilobites, gastropods.

[gsellis]

Thanks again.

[gsellis]

We went. We found. We conquered.

Here is the summary of getting there. The turn onto Hancock (Wade the opposite way) and go exactly 2.8 miles. Just before (2.6 ish) is another pulloff that is the firing range pit. There are cars there on slow days. You pull into the next significant pulloff and the trail is next to a quarter telephone pole at the direction of travel to the site. You get on the main road there and go about 750 feet. At the first major crossroad, straight or left, go left. Now you go further, maybe more like 900 feet. You are walking through woods. There is a 10' "ridge" on your right as you keep walking and walking. Just when you start convincing yourself you made a wrong turn, you come to a break in that ridge. Turn right and there is a wash trail into the area. And right there on the left, we found some of the best stuff lying around.

While we wanted a perfect one, we were just there for the novelty. Lorrie and I found some cool little pieces and I found a great piece of art. It is ferns, twigs, and branches. A little fine cobbing and a picture frame will make it awesome. Pics may follow, but it will be awhile.

The Yuengling tours are 10 and 1:30. We did 10am. You get 2 free beer samples. Don't let the parking meters intimidate you, as it is 25cents an hour. Put in 3 quarters.

If you are driving out of Pottsville, did the 10am, and looking for lunch. There is a Friendly's on the hill on the left before the turnoff. The diner in Pottsville was ok, but Friendly's is better. We stopped for ice cream on the way out.

There is a beer outlet in Pottsville as you turn north from the tour. You can get a 24-12 case of Yuengling Premium for under $16. If you tried it, you will need a case to take home. It reminds me of Tsing Tao!

My Garmin from Reading did not want me to go on PA 61. The other route is much more scenic, but you get stuck behind slower drivers. Recommend 61 to Pottsville and the alternate route back (there was a major traffic snarl on 61 on the way out.) Did not try Deer Lake. Stuff I have seen fairly commonly and the 'church' that some sites recommend as the point across from it was not obvious.

[carnelianpete]

Pyromorphite/Spharlerite not on the priority list ? I would change that. The Pickering GC is a great place to collect. These are pics from my last trip there.

[gsellis]

We went to Pickering. I need to do some cleanup and may have found traces of Pyromorphite. I found a blue green rock and something that looks like copper ore too. We left after about 15 minutes because it started raining. We are about 4 miles from there in the hotel

[CrossfireBusiness]

at pickering grab and bring home and clean later .. I had so much more than I thought I did ..but nothing like Pete has .. glad you got the fossil ferns ..