My Blog

Fluorite

Fluorite – Calcium Fluoride – became an important mineral in the 1880s when it was found to be an ideal flux to purify molten iron. Since then, it has found thousands of other industrial uses. During World War II, miners and anyone associated with the fluorspar mining industry were not allowed to join the fight in Europe or the Pacific. They had to produce ore for the war effort. Anyone who slipped away to join the army were sent home to work the mines!

Fluorite occurs in many colors. In the district, shades of purple and yellow were most common in the bedding replacement deposits, while white and brown were common in the veins. Blue is well-documented and highly sought by collectors. Green was found in the Rose mine in Hick’s dome. I found pink crystals at Conn’s mine in Pope Co. In general, most fluorite doesn’t fluoresce in the fluorspar district, except from oil inclusions. Fluorite around Hick’s dome has enough rare earth elements so it glows bright blue!

Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Specimens

Backlit fluorite octahedra at the Clement Mineral Museum

Fluorite with a fluorescent phantom of petroleum inclusions. Clement Mineral Museum specimen.

Fluorite crystal shown above under normal light, blue over yellow.

Complicated purple fluorite crystal cluster. No mine information available.

Text: This fluorite specimen is a gem in the field of gems was probably found before 1919 (before I [Ben Clement] came in Ky. Mr. [Edwin] Reed[er] was great [mine] engineer and a man with a love of minerals – my first desire to collect and my inspiration came from Eng. Redd[er]. He had a fine family always good to me for which I was grateful. See this specimen in sunlight.

Alan’s comments: This specimen looks like the Benzon mine (Cave in Rock) fluorite I saw at the Smithsonian in 1988. (Though smaller.) Benzon mine was at the current location of the Hastie’s mines, and may have included the Austin Lead, Oxford Cut, Cleveland, and Green-Defender mines.

I was given historical photos of the fluorspar district by Edwin Reeder’s great niece in the late 1980s. She took a ‘Geology of Kentucky’ class I taught. Edwin Reeder was killed in an automobile accident in Cave in Rock in 1931. He was never married and had no children.

Edwin Reeder photo of the Rosiclare mill complex in 1919.

Squire Riley fluorite carvings in the Clement Mineral Museum collection.

This gallery includes native species and my favorite garden flowers. Look for information with each photo. I live in plant zone 6. I’m using the most common name although sometimes it might be the Latin name.

Dolomite is another common mineral in sedimentary rock. It’s a carbonate mineral CaMg(CO₃)₂. Crystals are usually rhombic though growth can create a saddle-shape crystal. Color is commonly pearly white, but it can be pink, yellow, orange, brown or red. Those with the reddish tinge have iron in the atomic structure and are called ferroan dolomite.

Corydon Crushed Stone Quarry in Harrison Co., Indiana, is a top 3 or 4 American locality for its pink color. Intensity is variable and the color disappears if the specimen is left outside for a period of months or years.

Harrodsburg, Monroe Co., Indiana, is a famous collecting locality for geodes. One of my favorites is the dolomite with a little iron giving it a vivid color.

Sellersburg Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana, has rare vugs of dolomite, calcite and pyrite in the Jeffersonville Limestone.

Lebanon Quarry, Marion Co., Kentucky, has pale dolomite crystals in a dolostone breccia and in rare calcareous nodules in the New Albany Shale.

This quarry is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is the closest quarry to downtown Louisville. It is closed to collectors (don’t even ask) since late 2009.

The bottom of the quarry is Laurel Dolostone (Middle Silurian) and in ascending order: Waldron Shale, Louisville Limestone, Jeffersonville Limestone (Middle Devonian), Speed Limestone, North Vernon (= Sellersburg) Limestone, Beechwood Limestone, and basal New Albany Shale.

Unless noted, these photos were taken during a geology club visit on July 2004.

Annotated with site information, including geological / paleontological / mineralogical. Many quarries listed are closed or no longer allow collectors. This album serves to document geological locations – not to provide locations for you to visit. Assume all active mines to be closed to casual collecting.

Atkin’s Quarry in Jeffersonville, Indiana, was visited between 1994 and 2009. Access was curtailed with new management and policies in late 2009. Click on photo to see more.

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Hastie’s Quarries, Hardin Co., Illinois

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Speed Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana (Operated by Louisville Cement, then Essroc, then Italicementi, and now Heidelburg Cement, it will be closing soon if not already.)

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Annabel Lee Mine – A fluorite mine in Hardin Co., Illinois that I visited with Chris Anderson in May, 1987. We spent an 8-hour shift documenting the mine operations and geology.

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Coral Ridge / General Shale Brick Company, Jefferson Co., Kentucky – The type locality for the Coral Ridge pyrite-replaced fauna described by James Conkin in his master’s thesis published by the Paleontological research Institute in 1957. Many fossils were found over the years. The site became inaccessible in mid-2010 as our contact and many employees were laid off due to the 2008-9 recession and the lack of home building.

Additional locations – when I have time!

Boyle Co., Kentucky geode hunting – An area with geodes from smaller than an inch to bigger than 2-feet across. Mostly quartz with minor calcite, hematite, etc.

Cedar Creek Quarry, Bardstown, Kentucky – a limestone quarry (now closed) famous for trilobites in the Laurel dolostone. It also had brachiopods, crinoids, cephalopods, pyrite, calcite and sphalerite.

Carroll Co., Kentucky road cuts – in the Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, they contain brachiopods, bryozoans, graptolites, mollusks, trilobites, and trace fossils.

Corydon Quarry, Harrison Co., Indiana – famous for superb pink dolomite with calcite of various shades of tan to white, often with inclusions of iron, rarely with millerite or MnO2. Quarry is active and closed to collecting.

Elizabethtown Quarry, Kentucky – a long-closed and now privately owned quarry that we collected 900 crinoids between 1990 – 1994. The scientific papers naming 9 new species were a result. The quarry had diverse Muldraugh, Harrodsburg & Salem Formation faunas.

Hardin Co., Kentucky road cuts – on Hwy 313, from the New Providence Shale to the St. Louis Limestone, Middle Mississippian age. Various fossils and geodes of calcite or gypsum.

Illinois side of the IL-KY fluorspar district (excluding Hastie’s & Annabel Lee mines)

Irvington Quarry, Breckinridge Co., Kentucky – famous for fluorite, calcite with minor quartz and other minerals. Locality owned by Liter’s, Inc. Closed to collectors, though the last time I visited, collecting was hardly worth the effort.

Kentucky side of the IL-KY fluorspar district – numerous old mines primarily dot Crittenden and Livingston Counties. No active mines since the 1960s.

Lebanon Quarry, Marion Co., Kentucky – Multiple quarries in various stages from long to recently abandoned to recently opened. Calcite and Ordovician fossils primarily. Oldest quarry has some Devonian fossils, largely weathered too much to be interesting.

Salem Quarry, Washington Co., Indiana – this closed quarry was famous for geodes with celestine and calcite. Fossils were known but not widely collected in the Mississippian formations.

Explore the diversity of nature through Alan’s lens*. Infinite diversity in infinite settings!

* And some of my daughter, Emily…

Categories include:

Flowering plants

Birds

Insects, arachnids and other arthropods

Reptiles & amphibians

Mammals

Fish

Ecological settings

Weather and Clouds

These are photographs representing many of the species I have collected over the years. I have 629 species, 373 genera of brachiopods in my collection.

These pages illustrate a lot of different kinds of fossils. Within 60 minutes of the Louisville, Kentucky, area, geological time periods represented include: Upper Ordovician, Silurian, Middle – Upper Devonian, and Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous). The Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) is a bit beyond. The Pleistocene is represented by sand & gravel, loess and cave deposits.

Consider all guides to be “works in-progress. Images and information will be added.

Brachiopods               

Bryozoans                  

Corals                        

Echinoderms              

Mollusks

Sponges                

Trace Fossils

Trilobites & Crustaceans         

Misc. Fossils (Plants, wor犀利士 ms, microfossils, problematic, vertebrates)

Waldron Shale Fauna

I’ve collected or traded for a lot of miscellaneous fossils that aren’t diverse enough to list by category. These include fossil plants, vertebrates (mostly fish bone pieces from local bone beds), worms, graptolites, and problematic fossils that may belong to other phyla but are odd examples.

Photos – See each category

Preservation Key : C = Calcified, Ph = Phosphatic, P = Pyritized, S = Silicified, 1= w/o, matrix, 2 = w/

matrix

PLANTS                                                  Period or Epoch                  Location                Preservation

Beckerosperma ovalicarpa (seed) Oligocene Oregon C,2

Callixylon newberryi ^ (wood)       Middle Devonian                   IN                           S,1

^ (Almost the oldest petrified wood in the world)

Cederella merrilli (seed) Oligocene Oregon C,2

Various leaves Oligocene Oregon C,2

Various leaves Eoocene Colorado C,2

Malachite-coated lycopods               Pennsylvanian                     Oklahoma                  M,2

Prismostyus sp. (Rhodophyte algae)    Upper Ordovician                   KY                          C,1

Unidentified rhodophyte algae         Middle Mississippian                   KY                          Carbonized, 2

PROBLEMATICA                                           Period                               Location                Preservation

Conularia sp.  (Cnidarid)                   Upper Mississippian                       IN                           Ph,2 (partials)

Paraconularia sp.  (Cnidarid)             Middle Mississippian                     KY                          Ph,1,2

Sphenothallus sp.  (Tube worm?)        Upper Ordovician                       KY                          Carbonized, 2

WORMS                                    Period                  Location                Preservation

Cornulites flexuosus                           Upper Ordovician                          KY                          C,2

Cornulites proprius                              Middle Silurian                             IN                           C,1,2

Gitonia coralophila                             Middle Devonian                           IN                     S,1 (in horn coral)

Palaeoconchus annulatus                   Middle Mississippian                     IN,KY                    C,2

Palaeoconchus nodulatus                     ”                  ”                               IN,KY                    C,2

Preservation: C = Calcified, Ph = Phosphatic, P = Pyritized, S = Silicified, 1= w/o, matrix, 2 = w/ matrix

VERTEBRATES                                Period                  Location                Preservation

Bone bed fish teeth & scales             Middle Devonian                              IN                        Ph,2

Goniopholis sp. (crocodile tooth) Jurassic                              Wyoming               Ph,2

Odontaspis sp. (shark tooth)             Miocene                                        Manoc, Portugal  Ph,1

Orododus simplex                               Middle Mississippian                      KY                     Ph,2

Shark teeth                                            Cretaceous                                    MS                     Ph,1

Shark vertebrae                                    Cretaceous                                    Texas                   Ph,1

MISCELLANEOUS

Colelous tenuicinctum                       Middle Devonian                               IN                       S,C,2

Dictyonema sp. (graptolite)               Middle Silurian                                   IN                 Carbonized, 2

Geniculograptus typicallus                Upper Ordovician                               KY                Carbonized, 2

Tentaculites attentuatus                     Middle Devonian                               ONT                   C,1,2

Tentaculites richmondensis               Upper Ordovician                               IN,KY                  C,2

Tentaculites scalariformis                  Middle Devonian                                IN                        C,2

Assorted Insects                                  Eocene (Green River)                         CO                Carbonized, 2

Preservation Key: C = Calcified, Ph = Phosphatic, P = Pyritized, S = Silicified, 1= w/o, matrix, 2 = w/ matrix

MICROFOSSIL COLLECTIONS

Salem Limestone – Forams, Ostracods, Sponge spicules, Holothuroid sclerites, Brachiopods, Gastropods, Clams, Echinoid spines,  Bryozoans, Blastoids, Crinoid stems, Worms, etc.       Indiana                                  C,1 (shipped in zip-sealed bag)

Coon Creek marl – mollusk-rich             Union Co., Mississippi          C,1 (shipped in zip-sealed bag)

Trilobites and crustaceans are arthropods, the group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, millipedes, and the like. Arthropods molt as they grow. The result is common fragments and rarer complete animals. (Updated Feb. 10, 2022)

Photos of Trilobites and Other arthropods

TRILOBITES   Period                                Location               Preservation

p = pygidium, t = thorax, c = cephalon

Arctinurus occidentalis (Hall) – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2

Bumastus sp. – Laurel Formation, Middle Silurian, Bardstown, Nelson Co., KY – C,2

Calymene breviceps Hall – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2

Cheirurus dilatatus Raymond – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2

Cryptolithus bellulus Ulrich – a blind trilobite from the Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, Carrol Co., KY – C,1,2

Eldridgeops sp. (was Phacops) – Sellersburg Limestone, Givetian, Middle Devonian, Clark Co., IN – S,1,2

Flexicalymene granulosa Foerste – Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, Carrol Co., KY – C,1,2

Glyptambon verrucosus (p,c)            Middle Silurian                                  IN                          C,2

Kaskia chesterensis  (p)                      Upper Mississippian                         IN                          C,2

Litotix armatus (p,c)                            Middle Silurian                                IN                           C,2

Philibole conkini Hessler – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, Lowermost Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – C,P,1,2

Sthenarocalymene celebra (Raymond) – Laurel and Louisville Limestones, Middle Silurian, Jefferson & Nelson Cos., KY – C,1,2

Trimurus delphinocephalus (Green) – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2

Trilobite hash: C. bellus, F. granulosa, Acidapsis, Ceraurus, Isotelus, and other fossils, Up. Ordovician, KY, C,2

CRABS / OSTRACODS

Dakoticancer australus (crab)           Upper Cretaceous                           MS                          C,1

Paguristes whitteni (crab)                  Upper Cretaceous                          MS                          C,1

Paraparchites sp. (Ostracod)          Middle Mississippian                          KY                          C,2

Unidentified ostracods               Late Eocene or early Oligocene       Colorado                   Carb,2