The following information was provided by Pamela J. W. Gore and William Witherspoon from their book Roadside Geology of Georgia. To obtain a copy of their excellent book, please go to their website at http://georgiarocks.us. CCGMS is very appreciative to the authors for allowing the information to be presented here.
ATHENS
Georgia Museum of Natural History University of Georgia, Natural History Building 101 Cedar Street
The museum houses a geology collection that includes mineral specimens from around the world, more than twelve thousand fossils and casts (including trace fossils and Paleozoic-age fossils from the southeastern United States), along with more than twenty thousand specimens from ore deposits and mines. There is an extensive archaeological collection covering 12,000 years of human settlement in Georgia, and also collections of reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, mammals, birds, plants, and insects.
ATLANTA
Fernbank Museum of Natural History 767 Clifton Road NE
A private nonprofit museum displaying skeletal casts of some of the world’s largest dinosaurs. Its “Walk Through Time in Georgia” exhibit interweaves the present landscapes, flora, and fauna of Georgia’s physiographic regions with dioramas of the ancient life in Georgia.
Fernbank Science Center, 156 Heaton Park Drive
The exhibit hall has a display of Georgia meteorites and tektites, a cast of a Tyrannosaurus skull, several dinosaur reconstructions, and a NASA spacecraft. In the outdoor rock and mineral display behind the building, you can see a collection of Atlanta-area rock types, huge crystals and other mineral specimens, and local soapstone carved thousands of years ago.
Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, 571 South Kilgo Circle
The museum contains numerous examples of art and antiquities, made of a variety of types of stone and minerals, from the Americas, Egypt, and the Near East. The museum is housed in one of the many buildings on the Emory University campus that are covered in a patchwork of pink, white, and gray Georgia marble. Some slabs of the marble display foliation and folding.
CARTERSVILLE
Tellus Science Museum, 100 Tellus Drive
Named after the Roman Earth goddess, Tellus Science Museum has an impressive array of large fossil skeletons of dinosaurs and other extinct vertebrates, along with many types of Georgia fossils. The Weinman Mineral Gallery highlights Georgia mining and minerals and also has exhibits about rocks, plate tectonics, and minerals from around the world. Outside the museum you can see boulders of different rocks mined near Cartersville.
DAHLONEGA
Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site, 1 Public Square
The Museum occupies the 1836 Lumpkin County courthouse, the oldest courthouse in Georgia, with bricks made of local clay that contains gold. Inside you can learn about America’s first gold rush and see a gold nugget weighing more than 5 ounces, gold coins produced at the Dahlonega branch of the U.S. Mint in the 1800s, historical photographs, and gold-mining equipment.
ELBERTON
Elberton Granite Museum, 1 Granite Plaza
The museum includes exhibits on the history of the granite industry as well as tools used to quarry, cut, sandblast, and polish granite, and a display on the Georgia Guidestones.
GAINESVILLE
Elachee Nature Science Center, 2125 Elachee Drive
This private nonprofit museum and environmental education center includes an assortment of fossils, including fish, a mammoth tooth and other vertebrate remains, invertebrates of Paleozoic to Cenozoic age, a petrified log, and ferns.
KENNESAW
Vulcan Materials Kennesaw Quarry, 1272 Duncan Road
The museum at the quarry showcases minerals, rocks, and fossils and emphasizes the importance of mining to society.
MILLEDGEVILLE
Georgia College Natural History Museum and Planetarium, 221 North Wilkinson Street
This museum is dedicated to the earth sciences and houses one of the largest collections of fossils in the Southeast, including plants, invertebrates, fish, an ichthyosaur, a dinosaur, mammals, and birds. Exhibits showcase unique geologic resources of Georgia, including caves, the fossil-rich Hardie Mine site in Wilkinson County, and ice age mammals from Brunswick. It is also the official repository of specimens for the National Park Service.
NELSON
Marble Museum, 1985 Kennesaw Avenue
The Marble Museum is located in Nelson City Hall. The exhibit covers the geology of marble, the uses of Georgia marble (from pre-Columbian sculptures found at Etowah Mounds through modern industrial uses), the details and history of quarrying, and examples of famous buildings and monuments that use Georgia marble (such as the seated Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial). The public can view marble quarries at the annual Pickens County Georgia Marble Festival in October.
ROSWELL
Chattahoochee Nature Center, 9135 Willeo Road
This private nonprofit environmental education center has interactive exhibits on the Chattahoochee River watershed. There is a Nature Exchange with thousands of rocks, fossils, shells, and other natural objects that you can examine and even take home with you. You can see birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals; examine boulders of several types of rocks; and take a nature hike.
STATESBORO
Georgia Southern University Museum, Rosenwald Building, 2142 Southern Drive
The museum displays a number of fossil vertebrate skeletons, including a mosasaur; a mastodon skull; skeletons from modern vertebrates, such as the jaws of a shark, the bill of a sawfish, and the complete skeleton of a bottle-nosed dolphin; and a host of fossil invertebrates. You can also see a 40-million-year-old, 11-foot-long whale skeleton with legs, Georgiacetus vogtlensis, the oldest whale ever found in North America. This whale fossil provides a link between land mammals and whales.
STONE MOUNTAIN
Stone Mountain Park Quarry Exhibit
At this outdoor quarry exhibit you can explore the granite mining that took place at the mountain from the 1850s to the 1970s. You can examine large boulders of granite and pegmatite, see various geologic features in the granite, as well as visit exhibits on animals and wildflowers. A carved and polished stone wall lists buildings around the world constructed from Stone Mountain Granite.
VILLA RICA
Pine Mountain Gold Museum, 1881 Stockmar Road
The museum has exhibits on the history of gold mining in the Villa Rica area. You can pan for gold and tour the intact ruins of a gold mine.