3rd trip to Lodi Park

Link to our second trip to Lodi Park
Link to our first trip of Lodi Park

Date: August 6, 2011

We have moved back to Ohio after spending a year in southern Wisconsin.
Time to visit my favorite and close by fossil collecting location Lodi Park.
Directions from Akron Ohio:

1)Take I-76 W/US-224 W toward Lodi Continue to follow US-224 W ~25 mi
2) Take the US-42/OH-421 ramp to Lodi/Medina 0.1 mi
3) Sharp left at Lafayette Rd/OH-421/US-42 Continue to follow OH-421 1.4 mi
4) Turn right at Elyria St/OH-83 0.2 mi

The goals of this trip was just to have fun.  Earlier this week, we had just driven in from Wisconsin back to our old house.  None of our stuff will be here until mid next week. Time to just enjoy and cool down.  Today's high temps predicted to be in the high 80s.

First thing we spotted: Northern water snake.


Next, swimming in the deep spot. Water was about 60-65'F.

Looking for some fossils

Kids caught some crayfish
 




Gary and Joanne Kindel

Hosting DRC Updates from a new site

I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in how I am providing updates for DRC but I wanted to share my experience. Today, I have switched the hosting site for my DRC updates from https://skydrive.live.com to www.dropbox.com.  You will not notice any change in the automatic update process.

I really like Skydrive.  Microsoft gives you 25 GB of disk space for free and you can share files. However, Microsoft continues to make it difficult to share direct file links.  You can only share link to the folder where a file is located and then load the folder URL in a browser and then you can parse out the file link from the rendered page.  This is a complicated process but it works.  Until this week...  This week, Microsoft eliminated the use of Silverlight from Skydrive and is now using HTML 5.0.  Kudos to Microsoft for using the open standard solution but they changed the page template again!  I'm done.  I will continue to share the latest version of DRC update on Skydrive but I am now hosting this updates from DropBox.

On other news, the new version of DRC is almost ready.  DRC 3.0 is about 92% complete and I should have it available in September.  DRC 3.0 will be a free update available to all DRC 2.0 users.  I'll post more details about DRC 3.0 soon.

Gary Kindel

Fossil Collecting in Ohio

Fossil collecting is permitted in most Ohio State Parks within designated areas so you would need to check with the Ranger station at the park.

Here is a link to current fossil collecting leaflet from ODNR www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/10/pdf/GeoFacts/geof17.pdf

Here is a link to fossil collecting rules at Caesar's creek: http://napc2009.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/caesar-creek-state-park-in-warren-county.pdf

Last time I heard, these permits were still free.

Pick up your permit at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Visitor Center, and while you are there check out the center’s display of fossils found at the park. The center is accessible from Clarksville Road and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information about fossil hunting at Caesar Creek, call 513-897-1050.

Here is a link to current parking restriction regs for Ohio. http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/HighwayOps/Traffic/miscellaneous/Pages/Regulations-ParkingRestrictions.aspx

I believe in most places common sense still prevails (unless marked otherwise). Be mindful, no parking signs can be small. Last fall, I was the received a $250.00 parking ticket for illegal parking near a hiking/rail road tunnel trail in Wisconsin! A wonderful trip that had a poor and expensive ending.

Lake Ellen Kimberlite Pipe Locality

Lake Ellen Kimberlite Pipe Locality

An exposure of an 18-acre diatreme of tuffaceous kimberlite breccia, located along a logging road west of Lake Ellen. Discovered in 1971, this is the first- and best-known of more than 20 kimberlite bodies that have been discovered in northern Michigan. Most are concentrated in a belt extending from this locality to Hermansville to the southwest. None have proven to be economically viable sources of diamond, however, microscopic diamonds have been found.

The Lake Ellen kimberlite was intruded into the surrounding Proterozoic Hemlock Volcanics formation approximately 180 MYA. In addition to occasional eclogitic mantle xenoliths, Ordovician limestone xenoliths are common among the rubbly, greenish-gray kimberlite breccia. The nearest outcrops of this limestone are 40 miles east, indicating that the formations once extended west to Lake Ellen.


View Larger Map

The most well known kimberlite location is the Lake Ellen diamond exploration location North East of Crystal Falls, Michigan

The majority of the possible Diamond bearing strata ocurr in a line from Crystal Falls East to Hermansville./Powers area. Shawn Carlson, a geologist involved in the Diamond Explorations of the U. P. in the recent past. Shawn has suggested that no significent commercial discoveries have been made to date. No diamonds have been found in quantity, or larger than 1mm in the explorations.

However, the Lake Ellen location does have Ruby-Red Pyrope Garnets, and Magnesium Ilmenite of gem quality. Garnets can be over one inch, and a one half inch Garnet as well as many smaller ones, with fantastic color. The Hermansville location yielded beautiful Peridot from the drill core. However, this location is under water and is not accessible.

Acanthite locations from Wisconsin

Mine Name	Latitude	Longitude
LYNNE	45.693333	-89.980833
BEND PROJECT	45.294722	-90.595833

Minerals:	Commodities:
ACANTHITE

Data exported from DRC 2.0 (c) 2011 Gary Kindel