The Lost Fossil in the Turner Farm

Somewhere on the pathway of life I learned of the basic geology of Pleasant Mount. The basics were that once upon a time our community was covered by the sea, followed by the glaciers that gradually retreated towards the present day North Pole leaving behind those elegant hills and valleys to be populated by plants, animals and eventually human beings. As evidence of this ancient transformation the geologists point to the well known deposits of coal and the ample supply of sedimentary rock that every farmer either revered or cursed while doing the routines of farming. But what does the sedimentary rock tell us? 

Well, according to the scientists, this type of rock is formed by sedimentation from the sea and as such it is an excellent source of fossil data which in turn serves as a natural history book of geology, including that of Pleasant Mount. Why do I point this out and where am I going with it?

Some seventy years ago I, like every farm boy, usually had the job of herding cows in from the pasture. And as I did so I passed a protruding rock, among the many protruding rocks on our farm, on which was the outline of a complete skeleton of a fish. If my memory serves me right it was about 10 inches long, plus or minus. As a youth I passed it by. As an adult I wish that I had had the good sense to bring it to the attention of some archeologists in the hopes that they would have extracted it as natural proof that our little community was once covered by the sea.

 Clarence J. Turner

 The writer grew up in Rock Lake but now lives in Newport Beach, California.

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