A Location Guide for Rock Hounds in the United States

KENTUCKY

Minerals are the major contribution to the Blue Grass State’s economy. These

consist mainly of coal, limestone, fluorspar, rock asphalt, gravel and sand-all products of

sedimentation. The state is part of a very old land surface, lying within the eastern uplifted

Appalachian Plateau and the westerly Interior Low Plateaus. During most of the Paleozoic

and Mesozoic eras, Kentucky lay beneath the sea, and thus its rock formations are

predominantly sedimentary shales, sandstones, limestone, etc., with almost no igneous or

metamorphic intrusions.

The rugged hardwood timbered Cumberland Plateau that comprises part of eastern Kentucky rises to 4,100’ in Big Black Mt., highest of numerous peaks that straddle the Virginia border in the range of the same name along the boundaries of Bell and Harlan counties. This plateau breaks toward the Bluegrass heartland in the Pottsville Escarpment,

marked by a belt of rounded shale hills known as the Knobs. To the west in the low Mississippian Plateau, a region of rocky hillsides denotes an extensive area of underground streams which have carved such great caverns as the famed Mammoth Caves in the limestone sub-strata.

The region lying east of the Tennessee River emerged from the Paleozoic seas toward the close of the Mississippian period some 340 million years ago. Outcropping rocks in this region range from middle Ordovician to the Pennsylvanian, containing few collectable minerals and gemstones but great amounts of fossils. Nevertheless, wherever the Fort

Payne and Warsaw formations of the Mississippian Period outcrop, gemmy geodes appear abundantly. These interesting nodules are found in many sizes from walnut to beach ball. Some contain beautifully banded chalcedony, while others have interiors lined with crystals of Calcite, Celestite, Fluorite, Goethite, Pyrite, and Quartz. The most productive area for

geodes surrounds the Bluegrass, southward into Tennessee. Throughout this considerable region, investigation of creek and stream beds & banks, runs & rills, rd. and RR cut banks, excavations, almost always reveals an abundant supply of geodes.

The lands lying west of the Tennessee R., known as the Purchase Region, did not emerge from the sea until Tertiary times only 40 to 50 million years ago. This region remained for long ages as the head of a great embayment extending north from the ancient Gulf of Mexico, thus receiving largely estuarine deposits. Cretaceous and Tertiary formation

are developed principally in the Jackson Purchase area, while Pleistocene alluvium occurs plentifully in the valleys of western Kentucky and along the Ohio R. and its tributaries.

ADAIR COUNTY

AREA, countywide creeks, rivers, beds and banks, rd. cuts exposing the Warsaw

Formation-Quartz and other geodes.

COLUMBIA, the Shamrock Stone Co. limestone quarry-geodes.

ALLEN COUNTY

SCOTTSVILLE, area quarries in the Warsaw formation-Quartz geodes.

BALLARD COUNTY

WICKCLIFF: - E, in a ravine as a deposit-yellow ocher; - in gravel pit-

jasper.

BARREN COUNTY

CAVE CITY, area commercial quarries, as pink and yellow gemmy varieties-

marble.

GLASGOW, in steam to E.-geodes.

BATH COUNTY

OWINGSVILLE, area iron mines-Hematite.

BOURBON COUNTY

MILLERSBURG, area mines-Barite, Galena.

BOYD, CARTER, GREENUP COUNTIES

ASHLAND (Boyd Co.): These counties in the extreme NE corner of Kentucky

comprise a considerable mining district for iron ores, mines and dumps producing as the

original material-Siderite.

BOYLE COUNTY

DANVILLE: - many area mine dumps⎯Barite; - the Caldwell Quarry-

Fluorite (fluorescent).

CALDWELL COUNTY

AREA, many mines throughout W part of Co.-Barite, Calcite, Fluorite, etc.

CRIDER, N, in fault exposures-Fluorite, etc.

FREDONIA, area mines-Barite.

PRINCETON, area quarries-Calcite, Fluorite.

CALDWELL-CRITTENDEN COUNTIES

AREA, many well-known old mines such as Ashbridge, Glendale, Tabor, and other

regional mines back of the Ohio R.-Galena, Fluorite.

CARLISLE COUNTY

LAKETON, in bluffs of a nearby Cr., a deposit-yellow ocher.

CRITTENDEN COUNTY

AREA along the Ohio R. (KY side similarly famed Fluorite region of IL), many

Fluorite mines, such as the Old Jim Brown, Hodge, Columbia, etc.-Barite, Calcite,

Dolomite crystals, Fluorite (every color), Galena, Marcasite, Pyrite, Smithsonite,

Sphalerite.

MARION: - N 3 mi. from jct. of US 60 and Rte. 1668, on E side of rd., the

Crittenden Springs fault-Barite, Calcite, Dolomite crystals, Fluorite (every color),

Galena, Marcasite, Pyrite, Smithsonite, Sphalerite; - NW, off Rte. 387 at Hickory

Cane Mine dump (W of rd. and up Caney Cr. from the Glendale Baptist Church on Glendale

Church rd.) -mica, Fluorite, peridotite; - from jct. of US 60 and Rte. 855, go 1 mi. left to

old Kirk Mine-Barite, Calcite, Dolomite crystals, Fluorite (every color), Galena,

Marcasite, Pyrite, Smithsonite, Sphalerite; - SW 5 mi., as scattered deposits⎯ocher.

MEXICO, SW on US 70, turn left at the Crider Fluorspar Co. sign 0.8 mi. from town,

then left at 0.3 mi. (1.1 from town) across RR to the Pigmy Fluorspar Mine (open pit)

-Barite, Calcite, Dolomite crystals, Fluorite (every color), Galena, Marcasite, Pyrite,

Smithsonite, Sphalerite.

SHERIDAN, the Big Four Fault, NE to SW of Rte. 297 (the La Rue, Cartwright,

Macer, etc. Lead mines) -Anglesite, Cerussite, Fluorite, Galena, Pyromorphite,

Smithsonite, Smoky Quartz crystals.

ELLIOTT COUNTY

AREA, igneous outcrops in the Little Sandy R. area-Apatite, Almandite garnets,

Chromite, Diopside, Enstatite, Feldspar, Quartz.

ISONVILLE, in peridotite outcrops along the banks of Ison Cr., especially just W of

confluence with Johnson Cr. and across from the Ison Johnson school⎯Enstatite, Ilmenite,

Magnetite, mica, Olivine, peridotite, Pyrope garnet, serpentine.

FAYETTE COUNTY

LEXINGTON: - area mines-Barite; - vicinity of Morton’s Mill, mine-Fluorite;

- area of Elk Lick Falls (Petrified Falls), a large deposit⎯cave onyx (banded in brown and

yellows).

FRANKLIN COUNTY

FRANKFORT, area of Kissinger, as gangue mineral in the Clerk vein-Barite, with

Galena as main ore.

GARRARD COUNTY

LANCASTER: - N on Rte. 52 on Boone Cr., in Barite prospect-crystal Barite,

Calcite, Fluorite, Sphalerite; - W 4 mi., a deposit-Barite.

GRAVES COUNTY

FARMINGTON, HICKORY, SEDALIA, VIOLA, regional gravel and clay pits, as

Pebbles-agate, chalcedony, chert, jasper, Quartz, silicified wood.

HARD MONEY, S 2½ mi., small quantities in gravel beds-Hematite.

MAYFIELD, SW 5 mi. on US 45 (and just N of Pryorsburg), area clay pits, as

Pebbles-agate, chalcedony, chert, jasper, Quartz, silicified wood.

HARDIN COUNTY

ELIZABETHTOWN, area quarries in the Warsaw formation⎯Quartz geodes, etc.

VINE GROVE, area excavations, pits, quarries, cut banks exposing the Warsaw

Formation-Quartz geodes.

HARRISON COUNTY

CYTHIANA, SE 3 mi., in Ordovician limestone as a deposit-Barite.

LAIR, area mines and pits-Barite, Galena.

HART COUNTY

ROWLETTS, area rd. cuts, banks, stream gravels-banded Calcite onyx, petrified

wood.

JEFFERSON COUNTY

LOUISVILLE: - area beds and banks of the Ohio R.-fossil coral, petrified

wood; - N end of Louisville-Jeffersonville bridge-fossil coral, petrified wood; - E via

US 60: (a) By-pass 60 to Grinstead Ave., turn right to quarries N of the by-pass near jct.; (b)

first left turn of Grinstead Ave., a quarry; (c) across the by-pass at E end of park-silicified

fossils, oolites; -: (a) rd. cuts along US 42; (b) the County Quarry (reached from

Grinstead Ave. N from By-pass 60 to Stilz, then left to Frankfort St., and Hillcrest to US 42),

quarry is 2½ mi. from jct. -silicified fossils; (c) rd. cuts N of the quarry-silicified

fossils; - Coral Turnpike, an exposure⎯silicified corals.

VALLEY STATION, S to Muldraugh’s Hill (on or near Co. line,; reached also from

West Point in Bullitt Co.), numerous roadside exposures of the Warsaw formation-Quartz

geodes.

LINCOLN COUNTY

AREA, countywide exposures of the Fort Payne and Warsaw formations-geodes

(containing Calcite Celestite, Goethite, Fluorite, Quartz and Pyrite; some with

botryoidal and banded chalcedony), clear Quartz crystals.

ROWLAND, N, on rural rds. to just S of Rte. 52, on Boone Cr. near confluence of

Hanging Rock Cr. and Dix R., numerous pits and prospects-Barite, Calcite, Fluorite,

Sphalerite.

STANFORD: - S 6 mi. via Rte. 78 to near hall’s Gap, bed and banks of the Green

R.; - along the S and E banks and in the Green R. bed from Green River Church SW to New

Bethel Church-geodes (some having pink Calcite well terminated crystals or Quartz

crystals).

LIVINGSTON COUNTY

BIRDSVILLE, nearby on Rte. 137, two abandoned quarries-Calcite, Dolomite

crystals, Fluorite, Quartz.

BURNA, area sandstone quarries⎯Calcite, Fluorite, Quartz crystals.

CARRSVILLE: - area fluorspar mines⎯Barite, Calcite, Dolomite crystals,

Fluorite (various colors), Galena, Marcasite, Pyrite, Smithsonite, Sphalerite, with

some Lead-Silver minerals in Fluorspar; - E 1 mi. and S of Rte. 387, the Ellis

Mine-Calcite, Fluorite, Quartz crystals, etc.; - E, on N side of Rte. 3872, a fault near

the Ohio R. exposing brecciated sandstone-Fluorite cubes.

JOY, area fluorspar mines-Calcite, Fluorite, Galena, Quartz.

SMITHLAND, N at Dyer Hill fluorspar mine, in cavities in a massive fluorspar vein

in the Dyer Hill fault⎯Calcite, Fluorite, Galena, Quartz crystals, Sphalerite.

LYON COUNTY

AREA: - along the E shoreline of Kentucky lake, and - all area rd. cuts and

Quarries-Calcite geodes, jasper, Quartz.

EDDYVILLE, area gravel pits, rd. cuts, excavations-agate, chalcedony, jasper.

KENTUCKY DAM, 6 mi. above at milepost 30, on the Tennessee R., in the State

Quarry revealing an unusual exposure of the Warsaw formation-Calcite, jasper, Quartz

geodes.

KENTUCKY DAM VILLAGE STATE PARK, area rd. cuts at entrance show Warsaw

Exposures-Fort Payne chert.

MADISON COUNTY

BEREA, SE on US 25, area rd. cuts and banks⎯oolitic limestone, Quartz geodes.

McGRACKEN COUNTY

PADUCAH, E 3 mi., mines and pits⎯ocher.

MARSHALL COUNTY

CALVERT CITY, are of Highland Landing on the Tennessee R., a deposit on the

Banks-ocher.

MERCER COUNTY

AREA: - area of the Kentucky R. bend (NE of Harrodsburg), and - the Two

Chimneys and Fantail mines⎯Barite, Calcite, Fluorite.

HARRODSBURG, area mines⎯Barite, Calcite, Fluorite, Galena, Sphalerite.

MONROE COUNTY

TOMPKINSVILLE, regional quarries, excavations, and other exposures of the

Warsaw formation⎯Warsaw type geodes.

OWEN COUNTY

GRATZ, N on N bank of Kentucky R. immediately W of Rte. 355, dumps of the Gratz

Mine-Barite, Calcite, Fluorite, Galena, Sphalerite.

ROCKCASTLE COUNTY

BOONE: - area rd. cuts; - S toward Mt. Vernon in all rd. cuts and banks-chert,

jasper, geodes, oolites; - in area limestone quarry-Calcite, oolitic limestone, Quartz.

MOUNT VERNON: - N on US 25, 1 mi. from city limits, in a rd. cut-gemmy black

chert, jasper; - W, in a limestone quarry-hert, jasper, geodes.

ROWAN COUNTY

ELLIOTTVILLE, FARMER, HAYS, MOREHEAD, SUMMIT, all regional quarries

and excavations, cut banks, stream beds, etc.-fossils, crystals, minerals.

SALT LICK, W 5 mi. and 3 mi. N of Rte. 60, the old Rose River strip iron

Mine-Hematite nodules, jasper.

SCOTT COUNTY

GEORGETOWN, area of Duval Sta., 1½ mi. distant at the Johnson vein-Galena

with Barite as the gangue mineral.

WHITLEY COUNTY

CUMBERLAND FALLS, area quarries and stream banks, rd, cuts, etc.-Rockcastle

conglomerate (a sandstone matrix filled with well cemented pebbles of flint, jasper quartz,

etc.)

WOODFORD COUNTY

TROY, SW 2 mi. on Mundy’s landing rd., dead-ending at mines and prospect

Pits-crystals of Barite, Calcite, Fluorite, Galena, Sphalerite.