
Rockhounding Kentucky
Kentucky is a good state for rockhounding. Aside from Kentucky’s enormous coal deposits, the state also has Kentucky agates, chert, concretions, flint, fluorite, galena, geodes, and fossils. Kentucky is famous for its many caves, including Mammoth Cave. In addition, meteorites have been recovered in 27 locations in Kentucky, including Bath, Bullitt, Livingston, Franklin, Allen, Carroll, Grant, and McCreary Counties.
State Rocks, Gemstones, Minerals, Fossils, & Dinosaurs
Rockhounding Tip: Knowing state rocks, gemstones, minerals, fossils, and dinosaurs often can be very useful information for rockhounders. Ordinarily, states with significant mineral deposits, valuable gemstones, fossils, or unusual or significant rock occurrences will designate an official state mineral, rock/stone, gemstone, fossil, or dinosaur to promote interest in the state’s natural resources, history, tourism, etc. Accordingly, such state symbols often are a valuable clue as to potential worthwhile rockhounding opportunities.

Kentucky Agate
State Rock:
Kentucky Agate (2000)
Kentucky
designated Kentucky Agate as its official state rock in 2000. Agate,
is a crypto-crystalline form of quartz, which is a silicate mineral. In Kentucky, beautiful specimens of red, black, yellow, and gray banded agate have been
discovered in Estill, Jackson, Powell, Madison, and Rockcastle Counties. These Kentucky agates are derived from the
Renfro-Borden Formation of Early Mississippian age and can be collected along
some river drainages where the Borden is exposed to weathering.

Freshwater Pearl
State
Gemstone: Freshwater Pearl (1986)
Kentucky designated
freshwater pearl as its official state gem in 1986. Pearls are deposits of calcium carbonate
(aragonite, calcite, or both) called nacre. Pearl (nacre) is not a mineral because it does
not have a distinctive crystal structure and because it is formed by the action
of a living organism. Because pearls
have long been used in jewelry, however, they are considered gemstones. Pearls form around irritants (usually sand
grains) within a pelecypod shell (usually clam, oyster, or mussel). Freshwater pearls are the state gemstones of
both Kentucky and Tennessee. Natural
freshwater pearls historically were found throughout the Mississippi and
Tennessee River valleys.

Coal
State Mineral: Coal (1998)
Kentucky
designated coal as its official state mineral in 1998. Kentucky ranks as one of the top three
producers of coal in the United States, with 150 to 160 million tons of annual
production. Coal is mined in two coal fields:
the Western Kentucky Coal Field and the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. Coal is mined because coal is a rock that
burns. Most of the coal mined in
Kentucky is burned to produce electricity at power plants.

Brachiopod
State
Fossil: Brachiopod (1986)
Kentucky designated the brachiopod as
its official state fossil in 1986. Brachiopods
are marine invertebrates with two dissimilar shells. They are very common in Paleozoic strata
(especially in Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Mississippian rocks in
Kentucky). Shells may be replaced with
either calcite or quartz. Generally, the
fossils are less than two inches in width. Brachiopods are fossil shells, from
animals that lived in ancient seas. Most
are now extinct. Although they resemble
clams, brachiopods were a different group of animals. Hundreds of different types of brachiopods
can be found in Kentucky. Modern
brachiopods live in the sea.
Accordingly, because brachiopods can be found in rocks throughout
Kentucky, we know that an ocean once covered the area now known as Kentucky.
Rockhounding Resources

State-specific rockhounding books (including the books listed here as well as other books), regional rockhounding site guides, and other helpful rockhounding resources are identified - by category - in the Books & Gear section of Gator Girl Rocks with a link to the Gator Girl Rocks Amazon Store where you may easily browse selected resources and securely place an order. Your order will benefit Charity Rocks!

Kentucky Geological
Survey
The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) provides
scientifically based information on Kentucky's geology and mineral and water
resources.

Kentucky Paleontological
Society
The Kentucky Paleontological Society
was founded in 1993 for the purpose of promoting interest in and knowledge of
the science of paleontology. A newsletter
is published monthly, and several field trips are arranged annually.
- Allan W. Eckert, Earth Treasures Vol. 2 - Southeastern Quadrant (1985; reprint in 2000).
- James Martin Monaco & Jeannette Hathway Monaco, Fee Mining & Mineral Adventures in the Eastern U.S. (2d ed. 2010).
- Kathy J. Rygle & Stephen F. Pedersen, Southeast Treasure Hunter's Gem & Mineral Guide (4th ed. 2008).
Museums of Interest to Rockhounders
Ben E. Clement
Mineral Museum
Marion, Kentucky
The Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum’s mineral
collection includes specimens from throughout
the world. Thousands of these minerals
are from the mines of the famous Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky
Fluorspar Region. The museum also houses
an extensive display of the coal plant fossil Lepidodendron and petrified wood.
In addition, the museum exhibits fluorescent
specimens and gemstone carvings.

Louisville Science Center
Louisville, Kentucky
The museum exhibits local fossils and minerals.

American Cave Museum
Horse Cave, Kentucky
Kentucky’s official karst museum showcases the
natural history of caves. The Hidden
River Cave is located on site.

Kentucky Coal Museum
Benham, Kentucky
The museum houses a diverse collection of artifacts exploring the early
years of industrial coal mining in Kentucky.

Behringer-Crawford Museum
Covington, Kentucky
The museum exhibits local minerals and fossils.
Places to Visit - Interesting Sites To See

Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky
Mammoth Cave is the longest recorded cave system
in the world with over 365 miles of explored passages.

Big Bone Lick State Park
Boone
County, Kentucky
Pleistocene (ice age) megafauna fossils have
been found at this site. Scientists
believe that mammoths and other creatures were drawn to the site by a salt
lick. The Park bills itself as "the birthplace of American
paleontology” – a term that dates from the 1807 expedition by William Clark and
his brother General George Rogers Clark.
In 2002, the National Park Service designated Big Bone Lick State Park
as an official Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Site. The visitor’s center and museum features
local fossils including a 1,000 pound mastodon skull.

Red River Gorge Geological Area
East-Central Kentucky
The Red River Gorge Geological Area is located
within the Daniel Boone National Forest.
The area features over 100 natural sandstone arches as well as sandstone
cliffs waterfalls, and natural bridges.
Kentucky’s Natural Bridge State Park is adjacent to the Red River Gorge
Geological Area.
Blue Heron Coal Mining Camp (Mine 18)
Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area –
South Central Kentucky
Mine 18 or Blue Heron is a former coal mining
community (company town and coal mine) that ceased mining in 1962 but has been
recreated and maintained as an interpretive history area in the Big South Fork
National River & Recreation Area.

Cascade Cave
Carter Caves State Park
Olive Hill, Kentucky
The Carter County region has the highest
concentration of caves to be found in any area of Kentucky. Two of the Park’s caves offer guided tours
year-round, Cascade Cave and X-Cave.
Rockhounding Sites for Children & Families
Geodes
South-central Kentucky
The Fort Payne and Warsaw-Salem Formations of
Mississippian age, which crop out in a general semicircle around the Outer Blue
Grass and southward into Tennessee, are noted for their abundant geodes. In many places, creeks that drain these
formations are filled with geodes, and several mineral varieties can be
collected, particularly during low-water stages. Other locations for geode collecting include
the tributaries of the Green River in south-central Kentucky and along ancient
terraces of the Kentucky River. The
Green River has produced some very large geodes (two feet in diameter) and
countless smaller ones.
Concretions
Concretions are formed by the deposition of
distinct minerals, different from the surrounding rock, very firmly cemented
around a nucleus. They are generally
lens shaped, although some have irregular, complex forms. The most common cementing materials are
calcite, siderite, and silica. Parts of plants and animals may serve as nuclei,
and well-preserved fossils may be found in concretions. In Kentucky, large concretions of siderite
and calcite, which used to be called ironstones, are found in shales associated
with coal beds. Nodules are another type
of irregularly shaped minerals that occur in sedimentary rocks. The most common minerals that occur in nodules
are siderite, gypsum, calcite, quartz, and barite/celestite. Siderite nodules, concretions, and liesegang
(iron-stained) banding are a very common type of mineralization found in
eastern and western Kentucky sandstones.
Fossils (Upper
Ordovician) & Minerals
Jefferson & Spencer Counties,
Kentucky
Various
fossils brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, conodonts,
corals, gastropods, monoplacophorans, pelecypods, scolecodont teeth,
stromatoporoids, trace fossils, trilobites) and mineralized brachiopods,
aulocerid stromatoporoids and colonial corals with calcite, dolomite, celestine
and other minerals occur in interbedded shale and limestone in the Drakes and
Grant Lake Formations in the road cuts on U.S. 421 north of Madison State Road
155 between Fisherville and Taylorsville, Kentucky.
Fossils (Upper
Ordovician)
Carroll County, Kentucky
Various
fossils (brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, conodonts,
gastropods, graptolites, monoplacophorans, pelecypods, scolecodont teeth, trace
fossils, trilobites)
occur in shale with thin limestone layers
in the Kope Formation in road cuts on State Roads 467 and 227 between I-71 and
Worthville.
Fossils (Middle
Silurian)
Bullitt and Nelson Counties,
Kentucky
Various
fossils (brachiopods, crinoids, sponges, cephalopods,
trace fossils, trilobites)
occur in the Waldron Shale and Laurel Limestone
in road cut on State Road 245 between I-65 and Bardstown.