Sometimes the Treasure Finds You . . .

Islands

Dad likes to talk

about islands–

how they sink

how they rise

How some are bred

by volcanoes

and others built from coral bones

-by Marilyn Singer

from her book *Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth*

I started my rock collection years ago as a child growing up in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. It is not your everyday "rocks from the side of the road" collection, but an honest-to-goodness collection of rocks, minerals and fossils that I have scowered the woods and shorelines for, scavenged from rock piles formed by the building of this road or that, or had presented to me by family and friends from faraway places. My fascination for all things geological eventually led to a Major in Geology during the acquistion of my first BA.

Geologically part of the Niagra Escarpment - Drummond is an island *built from coral bones*. The Island offers a rock nut like me more to explore  -  and discover!  Among my favorite hunting sites are the Fossil Ledges.

These days I don't collect every fossil speciman I uncover. To preserve this wonderful natural scene for my grandchildren and others to enjoy long after I am gone, I take mostly pictures, not souvenirs. For while there are hundreds and thousands of fabulous fossils to be found - these wonders of nature took millions of years to form and it will take another million years for the next batch to go through the same metamorphisis from plant or animal to rock.

Amazingly enough, I have discovered that *shooting, not looting* has not in the least dampened my enthusiasm or passion for rock hounding.

 

So next time you are out-and-about on Drummond look down - you never know the treasures you’ll find!