10/19/2023
Thank you to Marie Solum, our Outreach Coordinator, for this week's staff pick!
Location: Alpena, Michigan
Why you want to visit/have you visited:
I recently visited the Alpena area when I attended the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) conference in late September. While I was there, I assisted Dr. Peter Voice as he led Michigan science teachers on a field trip to the Rockport State Recreation Area. This area was established as Michigan’s 100th state park in 2012 and includes over 4,237 acres on the shores of Lake Huron, approximately 20 minutes north of Alpena. The state park includes the former 300-acre Rockport Quarry where limestone was mined during the first half of the 20th century.
Interesting geological information of location:
Rockport is composed of the lower part of the Traverse Group including the Bell Shale, Rockport Quarry Limestone and the Ferron Point Formation. What makes Rockport so great is that this Devonian-age limestone is FULL of marine invertebrate fossils. Almost everywhere you look, one can find ancient fossils of when Michigan was located south of the equator and covered by a shallow sea. Tourists are encouraged to fossil hunt and may collect an annual limit of 25 pounds from the former quarry. I personally collected a beautiful, rugged Petoskey Stone as well as other tabulate and rugose corals and a stromatoporoid (sponge).
Other activities to do when you visit:
There is something for everyone at the Rockport State Recreation Area. In addition to fossil hunting, there are sinkholes, a bat hibernaculum in the old quarry tunnels, hiking trails, a deepwater port and pier, shipwrecks offshore in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the Lake Huron Flyway bird migration area and stargazing.
