By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Rock hounds of all ages congregated at Lowe-Volk Park Saturday for the Crawford Park District’s annual Rock ‘n’ Fossil Day.
The Rock ‘N Fossil day featured numerous prospectors showing their display of rocks, fossils, and minerals as well as sharing some interesting information about area rock and mineral formations in the area.
Dana Bator, who wrote a book on the history of the Leesville quarry, explained some interesting facts he found while researching the local quarry.
“It was a bigger industry than people give credit for. It was a million dollar a year business after figuring in the purchasing power of a dollar,” Bator said. “Some of their payrolls were $20,000, $30,000 per month, and they shipped material as far as Phoenix, Arizona. It had a nationwide reputation for the quality of the stone until it got replaced by concrete.”
Bator also had a portion of his rock and mineral collection on display that is two generations in the making.
“Some of these were my fathers, and some I collected,” Bator said. “One of them Ohio State wanted me to donate to their collection because it is a classic example of how minerals are redeposited,” Bator said.
Cartographer and prospector Kensel Clutter drew the map of the Sandusky plains that hangs at the Park District and explained how he put together the map.
“I spent two winters researching the original survey of the area,” Clutter said. “Every mile they would have three points and they would tell you what was on those points, and it was from that that I drew my map. It is 800-and-some miles that I had to do. I made my original map on little 2-inch squares and wrote back in what the surveyors had put on the original map, and then from that I made a Crayola map. Then a man from Marion who is a surveyor-technician was able to put all the information into a computer and make it into a professional looking map.”
Clutter also had on display his rock and mineral collection.
“I own a farm south of the Crawford County line, and these are all rocks I found on the farm,” Clutter said. “My uncle had gotten interested in looking for jade, and he thought maybe we would have jade on the farm, we didn’t. But at least he pointed our interest to look, and looking for different types of rock is where I got my start.”
Families also attended the event. Eric Messenger attended the show with Angie Evers along with her daughter Natalie Polley as well as Evers’ mom and dad, Charlie and Jeane Evers. Messenger explained what drew them out to the rock and fossil show.
“Just wanted to talk to someone who knows more about rocks than I do,” Messenger said. “My daughter and I have always been interested in searching for rocks, fossils and arrowheads. This is a place where we come to all the time because we come from Marion and there are no places to educate the kids on natural things in Marion. So we come here quite a bit.”
“We love to look at rocks, we like to find them, so we came out to check to see if anything we found were fossils,” Evers said.
“My favorite part was the geodes,” Polley added. “They broke the stone in half and I got to see it on the inside.”
Chairman of the Richland Lithic and Lapidary Society Tom Kottyan gave a presentation at noon on “The Minerals of the Findlay Arch.”
Members of the Richland Lithic and Lapidary Society were on hand to help visitors identify pieces of their collections. The Richland Lithic and Lapidary Society will be hosting their own rock and mineral show from June 4 and 5 in the Arts and Crafts Building at the Richland County Fair Grounds. More information can be found by contacting Kottyan at themineralhouse@netzero.net.