follow you around a stream.
"follow me around a stream while i look for rocks and crinoids & then hold them for me"
— her bio
the move
Single day-trip. Drive in for late morning, fossil-hunt 2–3 hrs, lunch in town after, home by dark. Low investment, high signal — you read the bio and showed up. Crawfordsville is the geographic midpoint between Wheatfield and Elkhart, so neither of us drives the whole way.
where
the recommended one
Indian Creek, Crawfordsville IN
~2.5h from Wheatfield~2.5h from Elkhart~1.5h from Bloomington (after Aug)
Crawfordsville is world-famous in paleo circles for its Mississippian-age crinoid beds — 340 million years old, some of the most complete crinoid calyxes ever found. The creeks around town drain through Edwardsville Shale; surface fossils show up in gravel bars after high water.
vibe: wade in to the ankles, look down, pick up a 340-million-year-old animal. you hand it to her.
access: most Crawfordsville creek beds are private. Public-accessible stretches exist near Sugar Creek / Shades State Park (Pine Hills NPL). The Wabash College geology dept has run public field days — worth a polite email before you go. Don't collect inside Shades SP boundaries (state law).
Falls of the Ohio, Clarksville IN
~5h from Wheatfield~5.5h from Elkhart~1h45 from Bloomington
220 acres of exposed Devonian fossil beds on the Ohio River — when the water's low (late summer/fall) you walk on a sea floor from 390 million years ago. Brachiopods, horn corals, crinoid stems everywhere. State park = look-but-don't-take, but you can sit with them for an hour.
vibe: the cinematic one. less crinoid-primary, more "we're on a riverbed and there are dead sea animals under our shoes."
access: public state park ($2/car). Fossil collecting prohibited inside park boundary — this is "find it, photograph it, put it back" energy. Best in low water (Aug–Oct typically).
Bedford limestone country, Lawrence County IN
~3.5h from Wheatfield~30 min from Bloomington (after Aug)
The Salem Limestone that built the Empire State Building is full of marine fossils — bryozoans, crinoid stems, brachiopods. Old quarry tailings + creek gravel around Bedford / Oolitic. Talk to the quarry-tour folks at the Bedford Limestone Institute — some let you take small pieces from the spoil piles.
vibe: the slow one. you both kneel in gravel and don't talk for a while.
access: active quarries are private — don't trespass. The Land of Limestone exhibit + heritage trail are public starting points; ask locally about which spoil piles are collectible.
what to bring
small hand lens (10x)
amazon ~$8 — turns gravel into a sea floor
a couple ziplocs
for whatever you actually keep
water shoes / old sneakers
creek beds are slippery + sharp; not bare feet
water + a snack
she likes zaza + coffee — bring both
small towel
for hands, for sitting on, for her if she falls in (she will)
phone in a ziploc
streak insurance + photos. no tripod, no overproducing.
explicitly NOT bringing: hammers, chisels, big bags. surface picking only. this is a date, not an extraction.
what you'll see
⊕
crinoid stem
stacked rings, often broken into little washer-shapes. the most common find.
✦
crinoid calyx
the "head" of the sea lily. rare and the whole point. flower-shaped, very fine.
◐
brachiopod
tiny clam-shaped shells. the second-most-common Mississippian find around here.
⌒
horn coral
curled cone shape. solitary corals. cool but not the prize.
≋
bryozoan
lacy network patterns. easy to miss, looks like lichen on a rock.
⎬
blastoid
close cousin of the crinoid, much rarer. tiny pinecone shape. brag-worthy.
after
Crawfordsville has actual antique shops downtown (Maple St / Pike St) and the Strand Theatre — old marquee, art-house programming sometimes. Lunch picks:
- Little Mexico — divey, cheap, good. Mercy-friendly.
- Bungalow Bistro — date-ish without trying too hard.
- Bru's Burger Bar — if she wants normal and you're tired.
If we're still energy at 4pm — Shades State Park is 20 min south. Old-growth pine, sandstone cliffs, Sugar Creek. Goth-aesthetic state park. Free.
honest framing: the bio line is small and specific. you reading it and showing up with a hand lens reads bigger than driving her to Yellowstone. don't over-plan. don't pre-buy a guidebook. don't research-paper this. show up curious, hand her things, ask her what she sees. the move is the showing-up, not the haul.