Down to the Fossil Bed

One of the great things about commuting by bike is you get a chance to see things you overlook or take for granted while driving. Like a lot of you I live in a city (Louisville, KY.) which has so much to offer if you just slow down and look.

One of my bicycle commute routes to and from work takes me past some of the most historical places in Louisville, KY. Just before the end of my bike to work along the river is the Falls of the Ohio River. In Part One of this series, we looked at the Interpretive Center, some of the fossils you see at the falls, the dam and locks. In this installment we will make our way down to the fossil bed where Mother Nature’s presence is abundant. The rise and fall of the Ohio River has left thousands of remnants of trees which cover the sides of the banks leading down to the floor of the river.

There are times when the floor of the river bed is littered with just about anything imaginable; such as tires, refrigerators, ovens, empty propane tanks, toys, clothes, and on and on. Occasionally, barges filled with products have broken free of their tow and were swept over the dam or flood gates and now there rusty remains are only exposed when the river levels are extremely low due to drought conditions.

The shore and floor closest to the Interpretive Center holds some fossils; however, the area closest to the Falls is prime real estate for coral and fossil deposits.

In order to get to this prime land it requires you to transverse over some slightly tricky, treacherous conditions and terrain. This creates an atmosphere where you must keep your eyes must be fixed on the task at hand in order not to fall.

But once you make it pass those conditions you will be treated to some of the most incredible archeological finds on earth. You will find more corral and fossils from millions of years ago.

These are just a few of the amazing relics from a prehistoric period which has left its footprint here at the Falls of the Ohio River. I hate to sound like Indiana Jones, but on the archeological time line we as humans are just a blip on that timeline compared to these fossils.