Rediscovering History
Falls of the Ohio guided tours show off the best of the fossil beds
BY REMY SISK
If you’ve lived in Southern Indiana or Louisville
for any amount of time, then you’ve surely heard
of the Falls of the Ohio. Located on the shore of
the Ohio River in Clarksville, the falls is among
the world’s largest exposed fossil bed of the
Devonian Period. These expansive 390-million-
year-old fossil beds are open 365 days a year for
visitors to explore on their own, but there’s also
a multitude of guided tours available, which, as
Falls of the Ohio Assistant Manager Brad Kessans
10 EXTOL SPORTS / OCTOBER 2017
affirms, help give the astounding fossils and park
in general a bit more context.
“We’re a vast fossil bed, so sometimes it’s hard,
even if you know where a fossil is, to locate it
without a GPS,” said Kessans. “But we are familiar
with where the best fossils are and what those
fossils are. So, on the guided hike, you get taken
directly to some of the best spots versus having to
explore for hours to stumble upon these places.
We also utilize scrub brushes, water and water
bottles to get the dirt, silt and sediment off of the
rock so we can expose the natural limestone that
carries the fossils. ... Also, most fossils are not in
their entirety and totally visible – sometimes you
only can see the top or bottom of a fossil – and
our experts are able to identify those whereas a
lot of amateurs are not.”
Guided tours are usually on the weekends and
scheduled fairly regularly, and the easiest way
to stay completely in touch with what’s going