This is a Nebraska State Recreation Area and so vehicles
require a State Park Permit. You can park for free at the nearby
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium and walk or purchase a daily or yearly parking
permit at the desk inside the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium or online at
https://www.greatlodge.com/scripts/ipos/GLNEpermits.cgi.
This site offers a cross-section view of the geologic
elements of east-central Nebraska. Displays in the area will help
you to know what you're looking at. From bottom to top you can view
and touch Pennsylvanian, Permian, Cretaceous, Oligocene, Miocene,
Pliocene, and Pleistocene period rock.. The periods/epochs are
dated as follows:
- Pennsylvanian Period: 325,000,000 to 286,000,000 years BP
(Before Present)
- Permian Period: 280,000,000 to 248,000,000 years BP
- Cretaceous Period: 146,000,000 to 65,500,000 years BP
- Oligocene Epoch: 34,000,000 to 23,000,000 years BP
- Miocene Epoch: 23,000,000 to 5,300,000 years BP
- Pliocene Epoch: 5,300,000 to 1,800,000 years BP
- Pleistocene Epoch: 1,800,000 to 10,000 years BP
A detailed search will reveal fusulinid (single cell
organisms), crinoid (sea lilies and feather stars), and coral
fossils. You'll be touching stone that was the bed of a sea
hundreds of millions of years ago and looking at the fossilized
remains of the sea life that existed here.
The coloration in the displayed rock layers is most likely
due to Cretaceous weathering. Reddish, yellow, and dark gray are
mixed in with the lighter limestone. The presence of quartzite,
granite, and greenstone show the glacial deposits from North
America's last Ice Age when Nebraska was covered in ice and
Mammoths (the official State Fossil of Nebraska) roamed the frozen
land.
Explore the rest of the State Recreation Area to view the
Platte River valley and its geology.
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Site was discovered with the help of the book, Roadside
Geology of Nebraska by Maher, Engelmann, and Shuster.