Does anyone know of any good fossil sites in Northeastern Pennsylvania?

Question

Just looking to do some fossil hunting with my son.

Answer 1

  No, I really don't know of any from northeastern pennsylvania but I'm am into fossil hunting myself and I would just go to a quarry any quarry and see if you can find anything and if so stick with that site. The best ones though are usually on private property and those would be good ones to go though mainly because they haven't been scavaged though time and time again. I know the sites I go to in west virginia are on private land. After I gained permission from the land owners I went on a search in there quarry and found around 8 or 9 trilobites and some corral and some crinoid stem "flowers" too. I have one great source for you if you need to know the ages of rock layers in your area or you're just curious about those in other areas. I hope that helps answer your question I'm always up for chat on fossils being that my major is paleontology. e-mail address= [e-mail]  

Answer 2

Well, you're more in the deep mining area than the strip mining area of PA. Still, if you can get near a strip mine you can often find good fossils. Chances are with today's regulations, you may have trouble getting close enough to an active mine to pick up any rocks, but you may be able to locate an abandoned mine.

My grandfather used to lease coal and he would sometimes take me to mines. One day we found the most spectacular tree fern fossil I have ever seen. You could even see pores on the leaf surfaces.