First Fossils

At an abandoned gravel pit along the Platte River, I once searched through the pile of large rocks that had been filtered from the gravel. They were of no commercial use and had been discarded by the gravel pit operator. However, they were a treasure trove to young rockhounds like me, and there I found my first fossils; brachiopod sea shells embedded in a nodule of flint very similar to the one in the picture. I was excited and thrilled beyond words at the sight of the preserved life forms that had existed long before people walked the earth.

Also looking through the rocks was Marjorie Martindale, a local school teacher from whom I had learned about rocks as well as the stars. She helped nurture my life long interest in both, and when she and her husband moved away a few years earlier, I gave her my first fossil find as a thank-you gift. Though I would have loved to have kept my first fossils, I treasure even more the interests that she planted in my young mind. I believed then that such a gift would best express my gratitude, and I still feel that way to this day.

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