ESCONI will have a field trip to Flat Run Fossils in Mt. Orab, Ohio on September 13th, 2025. Flat Run Fossils is a new pay-to-dig site in the famous Mt. Orab trilobite beds. For many years,
thousands of gorgeous Flexicalymene and Isotelus trilobites have been collected from this area. Other possible finds include brachiopods, graptolites, cephalopods, and crinoids. You will
certainly walk away with trilobites – they are not hard to find!

Trip details:

• We will be collecting 8am – 4pm ET on Saturday September 13th, 2025.
• Registration is open August 7th – August 30st. No registrations will be accepted outside that timeframe. You must be an ESCONI member as of August 7th, 2025.
• The fee for the site is $70 per person. Payment will be due two weeks before the trip, with refunds available up to 48 hours before the trip. I will send those who register a link to pay online. If you don’t pay by Saturday August 30th, you don’t get to come.
• We need at least 10 people to make the trip happen. The maximum group size is 16.
• You get to keep any and all fossils you find! Large pieces of unsplit shale cannot be removed from the site though.
• The minimum age is 8 years. Children 8 to 15 dig for free with a paying parent. Anyone 16 or older must pay.
• You must wear closed toed shoes at all times. When splitting shale, you must wear safety glasses. Follow any and all directions of the staff.

To register for this trip, send Connor Puritz an email with the names of ESCONI members attending. His email address is connorpuritz@gmail.com. He will confirm via return email within
24 hours. If you do not hear back from him within that time, send it again. If you register for the trip but can no longer make it, please let him know ASAP so other members can attend.

Note that Flat Run Fossils allows individual diggers to visit. However, by going with ESCONI, you get a special discounted price! You’ll also get to dig with experienced trilobite hunters who will help you find and safely collect your trilobites. This site will be a 4-5 hour drive for most ESCONI members. I recommend arriving the night before. There are a number of hotels ~25 minutes away in eastern Cincinnati. There are many good publicly accessible fossil sites nearby that you can collect too if you want to keep collecting on Sunday or longer. I will send a list with some recommendations to those who register.