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The Walcott-Rust Quarry is one of the most famous and important fossil localities in the world.
The site was discovered in 1870 by 20-year-old Charles D. Walcott near Trenton Falls, New York.
After this find, Walcott eventually went on to become director of the United States Geological
Survey and was the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for 20 years. However, it is
Walcott's original work on these Ordovician trilobites that remains one of his greatest legacies.
In the early 1990s, Thomas Whiteley re-examined Walcott's research, and rediscovered and re-opened
the Walcott-Rust Quarry. Recently, scientists declared the quarry as “the single richest and
most varied source of trilobites in the New York Trenton Group limestones and perhaps in the
entire suite of New York Paleozoic rocks.” (Brett et al. 1999) This localized strata has some of
the best preserved Laurentian trilobites ever found, including enrolled specimens with soft body
parts. The Walcott-Rust Quarry is still being collected and studied to this day. This website will
document the current work being done at the quarry.
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