Falls of the Ohio State Park is hosting it’s annual Digging the Past event on Saturday, Aug. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Visitors can explore fossils, minerals, and archaeology. A variety of programs will be offered outside, behind the Interpretive Center. Masks will be required to be worn in order to approach program tables.
Parking is $2 per vehicle with discounted Interpretive Center admission of $7 per person.
Saturday’s events include:
- The park’s free collecting piles, which will be operated per ticketed times every 30 minutes. More piles will be offered later this year to accommodate social distancing.
- Refreshed Silurian and Devonian fossil piles, courtesy of Irving Materials, Inc. (IMI), and Bagshaw Trucking. New minerals will be available as well.
- An outer fossil bed hike (for ages 12 and older) beginning at 9:30 a.m.
- Hourly guided hikes at 10 and 11 a.m., noon, and 1, 2, and 3 p.m.
- Talks and tips on a variety of topics, including collecting fossils at 10:30 a.m., minerals at 11:30 a.m., collecting tools at 12:30 p.m., collecting safely at 1:30 p.m., and collecting geodes at 2:30 p.m.
- Roving naturalists to help those who don’t want to join a hike to discover the fossil beds.
- Creating an “egg carton” geology collection.
- Making a weather rock or pet rock.
- Tabletop fossil and mineral displays.
- Digging “artifacts” in one of the park’s archaeological mini-mock dig stations.
- Information on the identification of artifacts with Wade Tharp from the DNR Division of Historic Preservation & Archaeology.
- A chance to get your unknown rocks and fossils identified.
Other sponsors of the day include the Mineral and Fossil Interest Club.
Falls of the Ohio State Park (on.IN.gov/fallsoftheohiosp) is at 201 W. Riverside Dr. Clarksville, 47129.
