Beargrass Creek Quarries

When looking at old fossil collections stored at museums and universities that contain specimens collected from the Louisville, Kentucky area, one sees localities like "Falls of the Ohio" or "Beargrass Creek".  In previous posts, the Falls of the Ohio have been covered plus they have an excellent website. 

The locality has somewhat faded into history. Beargrass Creek once hosted a number of quarries that I assume harvested Louisville limestone from the Silurian Period.  As you can see from the pictures it has been a while since any rock was harvested from the Beargrass Creek area.  An example of some fossils listed as having been found in the Beargrass Creek quarries: Cystihalysites nexus, Quepora huronensis, Syringopora hisingeri, Diorychopora tenuis, and Aulopora pygmaea.  These species are just a few listed in Erwin Stumm's 1964 book that showed the specimens as being stored at Harvard University.

Today, one can see remnants of these quarries along the Beargrass Creek Greenway.

The actual Beargrass Creek visible from the path.

Rock walls becoming overgrown by vegetation.

Side note here are signs showing Louisville, Kentucky's sister cities: Mainz (Germany), Quito (Ecuador), Leeds (United Kingdom), La Plata (Argentina), Tamale (Ghana), Montpellier (France), Perm (Russia) and Jiujiang (China).  It should be noted that Louisville is also twinned with Bushmills, Northern Ireland.