Rockhounding Mississippi
Mississippi is a good state for rockhounding. Although the state is a poor location for gemstones, Mississippi has a rich heritage of fossils as well as petrified wood. Much of the state contains sediments dating back to when ancient seas covered Mississippi. Interestingly, Mississippi also is home to an ancient, extinct volcano. In fact, Mississippi is the only state that has a volcano below its capitol, the Jackson Volcano that has been extinct for about 65 million years.
State Rocks, Gemstones, Minerals, Fossils, & Dinosaurs
Rockhounding Tip: Knowing state rocks, gemstones, minerals, fossils, and dinosaurs often can be very useful information for rockhounders. Ordinarily, states with significant mineral deposits, valuable gemstones, fossils, or unusual or significant rock occurrences will designate an official state mineral, rock/stone, gemstone, fossil, or dinosaur to promote interest in the state’s natural resources, history, tourism, etc. Accordingly, such state symbols often are a valuable clue as to potential worthwhile rockhounding opportunities.
State Rock:
Petrified Wood (1976)
Mississippi designated
petrified wood as its official state stone in 1976. Most of the petrified wood from Mississippi
comes from trees that grew during the Oligocene Epoch, around 30 million years
ago. The Gulf of Mexico's shoreline
extended further north at that time, which explains why the wood is found in
the more northern parts of the state. In
Mississippi, perhaps the best petrified wood location is the Mississippi
Petrified Forest near Flora. This site
has been known since the mid-19th century, but it was not until 1966 that it
was named a Registered National Natural Landmark, and subsequently developed
and opened to the public.
State Fossil: Prehistoric Whales (1981)
Mississippi
designated Basilosaurus and Zygorhiza, as its official state
fossil. The whales lived during the
Eocene Epoch, around 50 – 40 million years ago, when the coastline of the Gulf
of Mexico extended across what is now Mississippi. Basilosaurus
is the larger and better known of the two state fossils. It had a small head and a narrow body 50 - 80
feet long, giving it the look of a "sea serpent." The first specimen of this whale was found in
1832 along the Ouachita River, and since that time specimens have turned up
regularly throughout a belt across Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Alabama where exposures of Middle and Upper Eocene marine strata, called
the Moodys Branch Formation (or Marl) and the Yazoo Clay occur. Zygorhiza was a smaller whale,
reaching only 20 feet, and had a more whale-like body form. The first
well-preserved specimens of Zygorhiza
were found on the Gulf Coastal Plain in the late 1800s, and a nearly complete
skeleton was excavated near Tinsley in 1971.
These early whales were well adapted for a swimming lifestyle but still
retained the complex teeth of their ancestors. Their descendants, the modern whales, either
have simple conical teeth (dolphins, orcas, sperm whales) or sieve-like baleen plates
(grey whales, right whales and most others). Basilosaurus
and Zygorhiza may have used
their complex teeth both to crush prey like fish and squid, and to strain
smaller food items from the water.
Rockhounding Resources
State-specific rockhounding books (including the books listed here as well as other books), regional rockhounding site guides, and other helpful rockhounding resources are identified - by category - in the Books & Gear section of Gator Girl Rocks with a link to the Gator Girl Rocks Amazon Store where you may easily browse selected resources and securely place an order. Your order will benefit Charity Rocks!
Surface Geology Division
Mississippi’s Office of Geology is within the
state’s Department of Environmental Quality.
It’s Surface Geology Division functions as the state’s geological
survey.
- Allan W. Eckert, Earth Treasures Vol. 2 - Southeastern Quadrant (1985; reprint in 2000).
- James Martin Monaco & Jeannette Hathway Monaco, Fee Mining & Mineral Adventures in the Eastern U.S. (2d ed. 2010).
- Kathy J. Rygle & Stephen F. Pedersen, Southeast Treasure Hunter's Gem & Mineral Guide (4th ed. 2008).
Museums of Interest to Rockhounders
Dunn-Seiler Museum
Mississippi State University – Department of
Geosciences, Starkville, Mississippi
The Dunn-Seiler Geology Museum houses mineral
and rock collections, meteorites, and fossil displays including a Cretaceous
crocodile skull, and many fossils from Mississippi and the Southeast.
Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
Jackson, Mississippi
The museum’s ‘Stories in Stone’ exhibit
displays local fossils.
Places to Visit - Interesting Sites To See
Mississippi
Petrified Forest
Flora, Mississippi
The Mississippi Petrified Forest is a
privately operated commercial park and museum near Flora. The
petrified wood is believed to have been formed about 36 million years ago when
fir and maple logs washed down an ancient river channel to the current site
where they later became petrified. The site was registered as a
National Natural Landmark in 1965. There
is a small museum with examples of petrified wood from other localities.
Plymouth Bluff
South of Columbus, Mississippi
Plymouth Bluff is a well-known Cretaceous
fossil bed composed of marine sediments deposited when the area was part of a
vast inland sea. The Mississippi
University for Women’s Plymouth Bluff Visitor Center has an excellent display
of local fossils.
Tupelo Meteorite … err Meteorwrong
Tupelo, Mississippi
On East Main Street, Tupelo Mississippi (the
birthplace of Elvis) displays – on a pedestal – the 1,100-pound ‘Tupelo Meteorite.’ The ‘meteorite’ is reported to have ‘fell’
near Tupelo in 1870 where is was ‘discovered’ by Tupelo Mayor H.C.
Medford. The specimen has been publicly
displayed outside the Leake & Goodlett building since about 1965, but has
been ‘borrowed’ or stolen on occasion.
In 1980, however, a NASA scientist determined that the specimen is not a
meteorite; rather, it is just a sandstone concretion.
Rockhounding Sites for Children & Families
Petrified Wood
Northern Mississippi
Petrified
wood is fairly common in Mississippi and occurs in streams.
Fossils
Prentiss County, Mississippi
In
northeast Mississippi, fossils are fairly abundant. Twenty Mile Creek is a well-known location
for fossilized shark teeth. Fossils in
the area also include mollusks, brachiopods, and sponges.
Fossil Shark Teeth
Northeast Mississippi
The Tombigbee River Valley
is full of chalk and sand outcroppings that contain a variety of fossils. In the Golden Triangle area, these deposits
are mostly from the Cretaceous Period (about 82 to 70 million years ago). Throughout the area, there are fossilized
teeth from sharks, giant fish, and sea going reptiles.
Fossils
Mississippi River
Fossils
have been found in the Mississippi River gravel bars.