COLLECTING FOSSILS IN UTAH, NEVADA, TEXAS, AND 

 THE MIDWEST 



By JOSIAH BRIDGE 



U. S. Geological Survey 



AND 



G. ARTHUR COOPER 

 U. S. National Museum 



Gathering an important collection of fossils useful in the study 

 of stratigraphy and paleontology requires careful planning and exten- 

 sive field work. The National Museum collections of Paleozoic fossils, 

 although fairly representative of United States stratigraphy, are 

 lacking in fossils from some parts of the country and some portions 

 of the geologic column. In order to correct some of these deficiencies, 

 we planned to visit little-known or important localities in Utah, 

 Nevada, Texas, and the Midwest. Our purpose was twofold, for 

 besides the search for desired fossils, we wished to examine and col- 

 lect from Lower Ordovician sections in the western States in order 

 to obtain more exact information for use in the interregional corre- 

 lation of these rocks. 



Utah. — Our trip started in northeastern Utah. Bridge, who had 

 been working about Eureka, Nev., for several weeks with a Geo- 

 logical Survey field party, came east and met Cooper at Salt Lake 

 City. From here we went north to Logan to visit Dr. J. S. Williams, 

 of Utah State Agricultural College, who took us to fine localities of 

 Lower Ordovician rocks in Blacksmith Fork and Logan Canyons 

 near Logan. While Bridge made detailed measurements of the long 

 Lower Ordovician sequence in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, Cooper 

 collected Mississippian fossils with Dr. Williams southeast of Logan. 

 One of the prizes of the trip — a small but practically complete star- 

 fish, the oldest yet known in North America — was collected from 

 the lower Ordovician Garden~City formation in the Blacksmith Fork 

 section. 



Nevada. — At Eureka we joined the Geological Survey party, headed 

 by T. B. Nolan, engaged in remapping the old Eureka Mining Dis- 

 trict. This area, located at the north end of the Fish Creek Range 

 was formerly considered to have a relatively simple anticlinal struc- 

 ture. Actually it is an extremely complex structural unit, the correct 



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