ROCK COLLECTING TRIP TO LUMPKIN, GA

July 08, 2009
by Ray Hill

Some months ago, Ramona Beshear, one of my collecting buddies, and I found this collecting location in Chattahoochee, County, just below Columbus, Georgia. Yesterday, Dave Williams, LC Mitchell, and I drove down to this location on a collecting trip. From my previous visit I knew we could find some marine fossils and at least one location where we could collect a type of iron ore nodules.

From Atlanta we drove south on I-85 about 70 miles and then ramped off onto I-185 going south. We followed I-185 all the way through Columbus, GA to where it ends right at the entrance to Ft. Benning, a large Army base. There we picked up Hwy. 27 South and followed it to where Hwy 27 makes a right turn. From where we turned right on Hwy 27 south we went approximately three miles. Sorry. I didn’t measure the exact distance, but not to worry. We drove until we passed River Bend Road on the right side of the road. From this point we went approximately 3/10’s of a mile and stopped on the right shoulder of the road. This is a very non-descript location. Hwy 27 South is a four-lane road here. Where we pulled over on the right side of the road there is a bank across the Hwy on the left. It’s obvious that the dark gray sediment that makes up this bank is marine in origin.

(Note: This is Chattahoochee, County, GA)

Dave picked up some nice brachiopod fossils here and a few pieces of what looks to me like a fossil iron-ore root cast.

Brachiopod Fossils

Fossil Root Cast

On the right side of the highway where we pulled over, the bottom of the shallow ditch looks like a dark gray marine sediment. This material has seashell imprints all in it, both brachiopods and gastropods. We didn’t find any actual, fossilized, shells. My guess is that the actual shells have long since deteriorated away. What we did find was fossil cast and moulds, known as trace fossils…. hundreds of them.

Here’s a photo of the shallow ditch area where we collected the trace fossils

The marine sediment here, although believed to be late cretaceous age, is just that, sediment, not rock. The fossils found here are very fragile. You can take a chunk of the material from the ditch and crumble it in your hand like a dirt-clod. What I did was take a shovel and scoop up the sediment and place it in cardboard flats. I filled four flats of the material. And, from having done this from my last visit to this site, I places the flats of sediment clumps in a corner inside my office. I let them sit for about a week to dry out and then I pick through the material and separate the fossil specimens, very carefully, onto a couple sheets of newspaper. I then spray the specimens with a clear, flat, acrylic. I let them dry for about an hour and then turn them over and spray the other side. This stabilizes the specimens. At this point I can place each specimen in the white fold-up specimen boxes and put identification labels on the box. Makes for nice specimens.

It didn’t take long to collect as much of this material as we could possibly have any use for.

When we left the above location we continued south on Highway 27 for about another eight to ten miles to the small town of Lumpkin, GA. This is in Stewart County. After stopping for some absolutely wonderful Bar-B-Que and some cold ice tea, we went back out to Hwy 27 and turned onto W 39 Conn. going toward Providence Canyon State Park. From the intersection of Hwy 27 and W 39, we drove about three to four miles and stopped at a very interesting rock formation in the road-cuts on both the left and right side of the road.

Here’s a of photo of the bank on the right side of the road.

In this photo you can see a layer of iron ore running for hundreds of feet along the top part of the bank on the right side, with a white sandstone just below it. On the felt side of the road it’s mostly Georgia red clay.

Here’s a shot of one spot on this bank with a huge cap of iron ore.

Also in the bank on the left, hundreds and hundreds of iron-ore nuggets, nodules, and plates were laying about. Some of the iron-ore nuggets were shiny on the top, were rounded, and about the size of peas. Most interesting.

Iron-ore nuggets, nodules, and plates

From the above road cuts where we stopped to take some photos and collect a few of the iron ore nuggets and nodules, it’s about another four miles on down W 39 to the entrance to PROVIDENCE CANYON STATE PARK. Folks locally call this the “Little Grand Canyon”. This is a beautiful work of nature, about two hours south of Atlanta. Being that we visited here on week-day, we only saw three other vehicles in the park area when we got there.

Here’s a couple of shots I took while there.

Just a short distance from the park entrance there is a cement block restroom building on the left. This was our first stop inside the park. The area around the small building had been cut recently and the park area appeared to be very well maintained. We walked to the over-look location here and marveled at the site and took some photos. I noticed that there were a few areas of the ground with not grass. In the bare areas I saw literally thousands of shiny iron ore nuggets ranging in size from about pea size to nickel size. Thousands of them, all over the place!

Providence Canyon State Park has miles of hiking trails. It has 2-picnic shelters, has 2-pioneer camps, and six backcountry campsites. Inside the park office there are marine fossils on display that have been found within the park. It is interesting to see this display but I don’t think rock collecting is allowed in the park. You can easily combine a rock collecting trip with a picnic in the park and experience the wonders of nature here.

Ray Hill
Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc.
www.greatsouth.net
888-933-GEMS

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