The photographs on this page show Lang’s Quarry in operation throughout the year. Recovering our rare Silurian fossils is a long and arduous process, requiring years of work and a great deal of effort and patience.
The first step is to remove several feet of overburden in order to expose the Fiddler’s Green formation which contains eurypterids and pterygoids.
Once cracks are visible, hammers are used to split the plates open. We have to split hundreds of plates and move literally tons of rock to find one good eurypterid fossil. Pterygotus fossils are even rarer still.
Large blocks of the fossil bearing layer are then extracted by our earth moving equipment, and laid out to weather. If you try to crack the rock open before it is ready, it breaks into pieces, and you destroy any possibly to recover any fossils. So, after several years in the open, cracks begin to appear along the edges of the rock slabs.
Once a fossil has been discovered, it is removed with a hammer and chisel or — if necessary — a portable gasoline saw. Specimens are then transported to our lab where they are carefully cleaned and prepared by our expert staff. The final step is to plant new trees and ensure that the natural integrity of our land is preserved.
langs fossils
"Guided Trophy Hunts Available"
Collecting at Lang’s quarry
“Please Note: Lang’s Quarry is not open to the general public”
If you’re interested in collecting at Lang’s Quarry there are a limited amount of trophy hunts available per year. For the collecting season of 2022 we will have a very limited amount of personally guided Trophy hunts run by Allan Lang. It will be a truly interesting experience to collect a very rare fossil at one of the best sites for this animal in the world. Due to the overwhelming cost of running this operation the guided Trophy hunts fee is $800 per person (LIMITED availability). Please contact us immediately with an inquiry to reserve your spot.
For more information on our guided Trophy hunts
email us: [email protected] or Telephone us: +1(315) 894-0513