Sunday, August 10, 2025

Monument Composed of Fossil Corals of the Bardstown Reef


While visiting Bardstown Kentucky USA I found a monument built there in 1972. The plaque read "BITS OF HISTORY CASCADE RELICS OF HISTORY -- THE BELL, ROCK, TROUGH, MILL STONES AND LARGE ROCKS." When I closely examined the top section of structure it became obvious that was composed of maybe a hundred fossil corals. The monument is next to the The City of Bardstown Building, Bardstown Historical Museum/Oscar Ketz Museum of Bourbon History, and Jones Avenue Park & Don Harned Little League Field.

The corals date to the Ordovician Period and might be part of the Whitewater Formation (aka Bardstown Reef). I think these fossils might be Foerstephyllum (Bassler, 1941) and I have also seen the genus Favosites (Lamarck, 1816) to describe what these corals are.

I believe there is a monument to St. Joseph at the St. Joseph Catholic cemetery in Bardstown with its based composed of coral fossils like the ones pictured in this posting.
 

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