# Fossil hunting in NWGA?



## jeff8600

Any one know of ant good places to find some fossils around Rome/ Floyd county?
Thanks


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## jason4445

There is a big surface area which, of course you can't get onto anymore. It is in Catoosa county.  Go up I-75 between the first and second Ringgold exits and to the left going north you will pass a big cliff that has been terraced off.  That is Chattanooga Shale and it is completely loaded down with fossils from the Paleozoic Era.  Brachiopods, Crinoid stems, an occasional Trilobite, but most all are small but plentiful.  You use to be able to go on that cliff, but the last time I tried about 15 years ago it was posted.  Just do a search on Chattanooga shale and where ever that comes to the surface you will have fossils.  And about all the land in northwest Georgia is private property and you will have to deal with that too.  I have rock hunted all over north Georgia for years and that is the only place I have ever seen a fossil.  Of course I am sure there are others.


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## allenww

Other than Cretaceous material, the Valley and Ridge area contains, as Jason said, primarily undersea fossils.   When I was in college, we had our geology field school just below Ringgold to take
advantage of their ubiquity. 

Pick any road up there that crosses one of the ridges.  Beginning about half way up, start checking the road cuts. Trilobites are the focus here.  The higher you climb from there, generally the smaller the fossils.  At the top of Taylor's, if I remember right, crinoid stems
and other shallow water fossils rule. 

Shale outcrops are great places, but the fossils are generally carbon outlines between the faces (leaves) of shale. 

Don't get single minded - there were plenty of snakes warming 
on the walls of the cuts when I worked there.  

  wa


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