Near Buffalo, a 380-million-year-old ocean floor lets you take fossils home

America’s top fossil park is in New York

About 10 miles south of Buffalo, a 54-acre park sits on what used to be a cement quarry.

Three hundred and eighty million years ago, this same ground lay at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea south of the equator. That ocean teemed with trilobites, corals, crinoids, and primitive fish.

Today, all of them wait for you in the rock. You can dig them out yourself, and you keep everything you find. The best part is how easy it is to pull the past right out of the ground.

A bankrupt cement company left behind a science goldmine

The Penn Dixie Cement Corporation ran this quarry until it went out of business in the 1960s.

The site sat abandoned for years until a rock collector named Dan Cooper started calling attention to the huge number of trilobite fossils buried in the old quarry walls.

In 1993, the Hamburg Natural History Society was formed to protect the land.

Two years later, the Town of Hamburg bought part of the quarry and handed it over, with one condition: clean out decades of illegally dumped trash and keep it open for science education.

Penn Dixie now operates as a nonprofit, funded by Erie County and the town.

Researchers ranked it the best fossil park in the country

A study from the Geological Society of America put Penn Dixie at the top of every U.S. fossil park.

Researchers from Mississippi State University and Louisiana State University spent seven years evaluating seven parks across factors like authentic collecting, fossil identification, visitor education, and on-site mentors.

Penn Dixie scored highest across the board. The park also holds a spot on New York State’s geological trail, and it draws about 15,000 visitors a year from 45 states and roughly a dozen countries.

Trilobites ruled these seas for 270 million years

Trilobites are the fossils everyone comes here to find. These extinct arthropods first showed up over 500 million years ago and dominated the oceans for about 270 million years before dying out completely.

The most common species at Penn Dixie is Eldredgeops rana, with the less common Greenops and the rare Bellacartwrightia turning up now and then.

They’re related to modern horseshoe crabs, their closest living relative.

Many visitors find enrolled specimens curled into tight balls, though an outstretched one is the real prize.

Horn corals, ancient fish, and early shark remains

Trilobites get the attention, but the quarry holds fossils from an entire reef ecosystem. Horn corals, brachiopods, crinoids, and gastropods turn up all over the site.

You can also find bryozoans, armored plates from placoderms, and even early shark remains. Scientists have identified over a dozen species of brachiopods and several species of coral and crinoids here.

The park hands out fossil identification cards so you can figure out what you’ve pulled from the rock while you’re still standing in the quarry.

905 people dug for 30 minutes and set a world record

On Aug. 25, 2018, Penn Dixie set the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Fossil Dig.

Nine hundred and five people spread across designated zones and dug at the same time for 30 minutes straight. On-site paleontologists examined more than 2,000 fossils that day to meet Guinness standards.

Penn Dixie holds the inaugural record for the category, which Guinness created specifically for this attempt. International guests from a partner fossil preserve joined the event.

A 2023 find pushed the fossil record back 25 million years

In April 2023, two Penn Dixie staff members spotted fossils of a carpoid, an extremely rare relative of starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars.

This particular branch, known as solutes, was thought to have gone extinct about 410 million years ago.

The Penn Dixie specimens turned out to be roughly 382 million years old, stretching the known record of solutes by about 25 million years.

Scientists called it the most significant discovery in Penn Dixie’s history, and the specimens may represent an entirely new species.

Fossils sit right on the surface waiting for you

General admission gets you a guided introductory tour led by trained staff.

Tours leave about every 30 minutes and cover the site’s geology along with tips for finding fossils. You can rent or borrow hammers, chisels, and safety glasses on site, or bring your own tools.

But here’s what surprises most people: many fossils sit right on the surface. You can spot them without picking up a single tool.

Just walk the quarry floor and look down.

Stargazing nights and wild turkeys on 54 acres

Penn Dixie goes well beyond rocks. The park runs programming in astronomy, ecology, and ornithology alongside its geology programs.

On stargazing nights, you can view planets, nebulae, and other objects through telescopes set up on site. The 54 acres support plenty of wildlife, and visitors have reported seeing wild turkeys wandering the grounds.

Summer day camps and school field trips bring thousands of students through each year, with trained educators leading age-appropriate programs for all ages and abilities.

Over 4,100 feet of paved trails for every visitor

The old quarry’s flat, open landscape makes Penn Dixie easy to get around.

More than 4,100 feet of paved trails run through the grounds, built for wheelchairs, walkers, strollers, and wagons. Five shelters with picnic tables and benches sit spread across the property.

The park provides accessible parking and special tools for visitors who need help picking up or carrying fossils. Rain or shine, the park stays open.

The only thing that shuts it down is lightning.

An excavator tears open fresh ground at Dig With the Experts

The biggest event of the year is Dig With the Experts, a signature weekend fossil dig. An excavator digs into the quarry and turns up fresh material that no one has ever searched.

Volunteer experts in geology and paleontology help you identify your finds and use rock saws to go deeper.

The event sells out regularly, and the freshly turned fossil sites stay open to the public for the rest of the season. Private expeditions for small groups give you a two-hour guided tour of the most productive spots.

A new visitor center and international partnerships ahead

Penn Dixie has landed $250,000 in state funding and $100,000 from the Town of Hamburg for a capital improvement project.

Phase One brings a new check-in pavilion, an improved entrance, better accessibility, trail connections, and upgraded restrooms. Phase Two calls for a brand-new educational visitor center.

The park has also built international partnerships, supporting the development of a fossil park in Kashmir, India. Penn Dixie reopens for the 2026 season in May, with Dig With the Experts set for June 13 and 14.

Dig for Devonian fossils at Penn Dixie in New York

You can find Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve at 4050 North St. in Blasdell, N.Y., about 10 miles south of Buffalo.

The park opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m. during the season, with guided tours departing every 30 minutes starting at 9:15 a.m.

Adult admission runs $17, seniors and students pay $16, and children ages 3 to 17 get in for $14. For GPS, enter “Penn Dixie Fossil Park” instead of the street address for the best directions. The park reopens in May 2026.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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