LANG'S FOSSILS QUARRY COLLECTING
The photographs on this page show Lang's Quarry in operation throughout the year. Recovering our rare Silurian fossils is a long and arduous process, requiring years of work and a great deal of effort and patience. The first step is to remove several feet of overburden in order to expose the Fiddler's Green formation which contains eurypterids and pterygotids. Large blocks of the fossil bearing layer are then extracted by our earth moving equipment, and laid out to weather. If you try to crack the rock open before it is ready, it breaks into pieces,and you distroy any possibly to recover any fossils. So, after several years in the open, cracks begin to appear along the edges of the rock slabs. Once cracks are visible, hammers are used to split the plates open. We have to split hundreds of plates and move literally tons of rock to find one good eurypterid fossil. Pterygotus fossils are even rarer still.
Once a fossil has been discovered, it is removed with a hammer and chisel or — if necessary — a portable gasoline saw. Specimens are then transported to our lab where they are carefully cleaned and prepared by our expert staff. The final step is to plant new trees and ensure that the natural integrity of our land is preserved.