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Geological Sites of Special Interest
The United States is a nation rich in geologic treasures. Every
section of the country has many first-rate sites, it's quite
likely that you'll find something of great interest close to
The following locations, listed region by region, are just the
beginning of the list. One good place to learn more about
geological treasures in your area is your local National Park Service Headquarters.
The Mid-Atlantic States
The North Central States
The South Central States
The Rocky Mountain States
The Pacific Coast
Eastern New York
and the New England states abound in mineral and gemstone
collecting localities, while much of New York, along with the
Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts and Connecticut, is
a prime fossil-hunting territory.
There are many museums to visit in the large sites of the
Northeast. Among the most appealing to geologists are the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; the
Peabody Museum of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut;
and the Pratt Museum in Amherst,
Massachusetts. Vermont has two wonderful quarry exhibits: in
the marble center of Proctor, and in Barre, which is
world-famous for its granite.
There are also numerous outdoor attractions. Maine's
beautiful Acadia National Park combines rugged hill and
seacoast scenery with a fascinating geologic history; in
Connecticut, a dramatic display of ancient reptile footprints
is preserved at Dinosaur State Park. The Cape Cod National
in Massachusetts is an excellent place to learn more about
beaches, sand dunes, and the Ice Age, and the well-known Niagara Falls near Buffalo, New York,
is one of North America's greatest natural spectacles. New
Hampshire's magnificent Mount Washington, is the tallest mountain
in the Northeast, as well as one of the best places to see
the work of past glaciers.
In this region
gemstones and other minerals are most common in northern
Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey.
Museums with earth science exhibits include the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Academy of Science, and the Mineral Museum in Franklin, New Jersey.
Several Atlantic Coasts sites, such as Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware and Sandy Hook State Park in New Jersey, are ideal
places to study the movement of sediments borne by ocean
waves and currents. Moraine State Park in Pennsylvania displays
several intriguing Ice Age land forms, and you can see a
great river that has cut through a towering hillside at Delaware Water Gap, on the boundary between
Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
are plentiful in Florida, petrified wood occurs in
Mississippi and Louisiana, and there are other good fossil
sites in northern Kentucky, western Tennessee, and the
eastern sections of Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina. As far as minerals and gemstones go, the northern
parts of Georgia and Alabama are a good bet, as are western
North Carolina and the central portions of Virginia and
Several museums are of special note. You can see the Hodges
Meteorite and other geologic attractions at the University of Alabama
Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa; another big attraction is
the Louisiana State
University Museum of Geoscience and Natural History in Baton Rouge.
Kentucky's famous Mammoth Cave National
contains stalactites, stalagmites, and other amazing
limestone cavern features, with Stone Mountain, outside of Atlanta,
Georgia, is the largest exposed hunk of granite in the south,
with a commanding view of the surrounding Georgia landscape.
North Carolina's Mount Mitchell State Park contains the highest
point in the eastern United States, and the Mississippi Petrified
near Flora offers a self-guided tour and examples of ancient
Every state in
this region contains good fossil-collecting sites; mineral
and gemstone hunting is particularly good in Wisconsin,
Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the northwestern part of
Illinois. Geology exhibits may be found at Chicago's famous Field Museum and the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, as well
as the Cleveland and Cincinnati natural history museums,
and the Indiana State Museum.
There are also many outstanding natural areas. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, at the southern tip of
Lake Michigan, features huge slowly migrating hills of sand;
at scenic Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin you can see
a large body of water dammed by debris left behind by
retreating glaciers. Illinois' Starved Rock State Park is an excellent place to
see sediment strata, and Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior, has
outcrops of rocks formed by volcanoes more than a billion
North Central States
district of northeastern Minnesota is a prime site for
mineral collectors; other minerals and gemstones may be found
in eastern Iowa, northern Nebraska, as well as the western
parts of both of the Dakotas.
There are a number of interesting public areas, from Mount Rushmore and the unearthly Badlands National
both in South Dakota, to Minnesota's Pipestone National Monument, Nebraska's Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and Iowa's Preparation Canyon State
You can also visit the Geology Department Museum at the University of
North Dakota at Grand Forks, or the A. M. Chisholm Museum in
South Central States
sites are found in the central and western portions of the
state; also check out eastern Missouri, southwestern
Arkansas, and southern Oklahoma. Gemstones and minerals are
most common in northeastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, eastern
Missouri, and much of Arkansas and Texas.
If you are a mineral collector, don't miss Crater of Diamonds State
Arkansas. If you're more interested in learning about
fossils, canyons, or volcanic formation, the remote but
awesomely beautiful Big Bend National Park in western Texas should
be a top priority. Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Missouri features
natural bridges and sinkholes, while Oklahoma's Alabaster Caverns State
unique gypsum caves. In addition, the University of Kansas at
Lawrence has a Museum of Natural History, with geology exhibits.
Rocky Mountain States
for minerals, gemstones, and fossils abound in all the states
-- Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho.
Some of the biggest fossils you're likely to see are on
display at Dinosaur National
in Colorado, and the Denver Museum of Natural
is one of the very best. This region boasts some of the most
geologically fascinating national parks: Yellowstone and Grand Teton in Wyoming, Rocky Mountain in Colorado, Glacier in Montana, and Zion, Canyonlands, and Bryce Canyons in Utah. Extinct
volcanoes can be seen at the Craters of the Moon
National Monument in Idaho, and dramatic sedimentary rock
units are found at Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.
contains some of the richest fossil- and mineral-hunting
locales, many of which are in the western half of New Mexico
and southeastern Arizona.
In Arizona, the privately administered Meteor Crater demonstrates the power
of a meteorite hitting the earth's surface in fairly recent
times; Petrified Forest National
a showcase of giant fossilized tree trunks over 200 million
years old; and at Grand Canyon National
get one of the best geological lessons available. New Mexico
has Carlsbad Caverns National
White Sands National
and Nevada has the stark grandeur of Great Basin National Park.
found in many places in California, as well as the western
sections of both Oregon and Washington. Gemstones and
minerals are even more broadly distributed throughout much of
these three states.
A number of natural history museums, such as the San Francisco Academy of
feature geology exhibits. Outdoor wonders are plentiful, too:
Yosemite National Park and Lassen Volcanic National
California, Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, and Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National
and Ginkgo Petrified Forest
State Park in Washington.
of this material: The Amateur Geologist: Explorations and
Investigations by Raymond Wiggers, published by Franklin