Where to Find Fossils in Ohio
Ohio has 12 mapped collecting spots that report fossils, spread across 10 counties. 12 of the spots are on land mapped as publicly accessible.
Every fossil spot we track in Ohio
Best spotCaesar Creek Lake SpillwayWarren County, OhioPublic access · Fossil, Trilobite, Brachiopod +2
Best spotHueston Woods State ParkPreble County, OhioPublic access · Fossil, Trilobite, Brachiopod +2
Best spotOakes Quarry ParkGreene County, OhioPublic access · Fossil, Crinoid, Brachiopod +2
Best spotTrammel Fossil ParkHamilton County, OhioPublic access · Fossil, Trilobite, Brachiopod +2
Best spotMedusa Quarry in SylvaniaLucas County, OhioPublic access · Fossil
SanduskyErie County, OhioPublic access · Calcite, Celestite, Dolomite +5- GenoaOttawa County, OhioPublic access · Calcite, Celestite, Dolomite +4
- Maple Grove QuarrySeneca County, OhioPublic access · Calcite, Celestite, Dolomite +4
- Clay Center limestone quarryOttawa County, OhioPublic access · Calcite, Celestite, Dolomite +3
- Arcola Creek ParkLake County, OhioPublic access · Slag, Crinoid, Fossil +1
- Breakwater BeachAshtabula County, OhioPublic access · Slag, Crinoid, Fossil +1
- Headlands BeachLake County, OhioPublic access · Slag, Crinoid, Fossil +1
Standout fossil spots in Ohio
Hand-picked from the full list above, with the reason each one earns a trip.
Oakes Quarry Park
Greene County
Oakes Quarry Park exposes the Silurian Brassfield Formation, roughly 440 million years old, and preserves two ancient patch reefs that have yielded 29 species of crinoids, some among the largest ever described.
Trammel Fossil Park
Hamilton County
A graded hillside at Trammel Fossil Park lays bare several formations of Upper Ordovician Cincinnatian limestone and shale, over 440 million years old, in a suburb of the city that gives the Cincinnatian Series its name.
Medusa Quarry in Sylvania
Lucas County
This five-acre former Medusa cement quarry, now the Olander Park District's Fossil Park, is set into the Middle Devonian Silica Formation, a shale famous worldwide for beautifully preserved trilobites and more than 200 species of marine invertebrates about 375 million years old.
Hueston Woods State Park
Preble County
Hueston Woods is one of the few Ohio state parks that permits fossil collecting, and it is regarded as one of the best places in the world to find Upper Ordovician fossils.
Caesar Creek Lake Spillway
Warren County
The emergency spillway below Caesar Creek dam cut through Upper Ordovician bedrock and exposed one of the richest fossil beds in the eastern United States, packed with brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, horn corals, and the trilobite Isotelus, the animal Ohio adopted as its state invertebrate fossil.
Best counties for fossils in Ohio
Ranked by the number of mapped fossil spots. County links open the full rockhounding page for that county.
Fossils in Ohio FAQ
Where can you find fossils in Ohio?+
How many fossil spots are mapped in Ohio?+
Is it legal to collect fossils in Ohio?+
Where else to find fossils
More minerals to hunt in Ohio
Hunt fossils in Ohio with the map in your pocket
RockHoundR puts these spots on an offline map with BLM and Forest Service overlays, geology layers, and a log for your finds.
