fossil & prairie center

Here you can find and KEEP Devonian era fossils. Many fossils were easy to find right on the surface, but with a little digging with a small gardening trowel we found even more. There is standing water at the bottom of the pit and the hillsides are steep and a little slippery so families should plan to keep close eyes on their children. We also enjoyed hiking in the restored prarie and to the old kilns at the back of the park. Everyone from age 9 to 69 had a good time.

My kids love to collect rocks, so i did some looking into places we could go to collect rocks. Found this county park in Iowa that you could collect fossils and keep them. All three kids had a great time and where very excited to find fossils. Shell fossils are everywhere and in a couple hours the kids each had a bucket full. Only caution is that the fossils are in an old clay pit so good shoes and pants are a good idea. Plan on getting dirty and having fun.

Fun looking for fossils, quite often just laying on the ground. The staff was helpful offering containers to keep our finds in.

This was so awesome! My sister-in-law and I took our four kids and Grandma and Grandpa to the Fossil Center on a Thursday. We arrived on a cloudy cool day in June. It was the perfect day! If you come here, you should know there is little to no shade in the fossil hunting area. It is pretty steep so you have to keep a close watch on the smaller children. There is a shaded picnic area at the parking area along with a primitive bathroom. We also found a water spigot to wash our hands before our picnic. We had a great day and found many fossils. After we finished, we went over to the visitor's center which is only open in the afternoon. It was small but beautifully done and there were many hands-on educational exhibits for the kids and it also has a nice bathroom facility as well. You couldn't ask for a better free, outdoor, educational actitvity to do with kids. Did I mention you can keep the fossils you find?

This is a small center, but the center is really nice and the docent's are great. A nice place to take the kids.