T. rex fans and pet rocks: Rock-n-Fossil Day celebrates geology for all ages
About 1,200 people turned out Saturday for Utah State University’s free Rock-n-Fossil Day, an annual event featuring fossil digs, rock identification and museum tours.
USU’s Geosciences Department hosted Rock-n-Fossil Day, the department’s free annual event drawing an estimated 1,200 visitors for hands-on fossil hunting, rock identification and museum tours.
“Oftentimes when you’re a kid, it’s like, oh, geology, rocks,” said Ellen Imler, a program assistant who has organized the event for nearly a decade. “But there’s so much more.”
This year added several new stations, including a station called “Geologist in Training” where visitors use a flowchart created by the geology department to identify three types of rocks. The visitors would then check their answers against sample collections.
Other stations included the fossil dig in which children unearthed real fossils from sand-filled bins using shovels and brushes. Additionally, they got to take home whatever they found. The rest of the stations included rock and mineral identification with professors, museum tours and a pet rock activity where families identified and named their rocks.
The museum’s Utahraptor model, nicknamed Percy, and its preserved mammoth tusk drew steady crowds throughout the day.
Among those working the Geologist in Training station were Chloe Danos and Camryn Fowler, both geology graduates.
Hadley Sintay Community members gather around displays during Rock-n-Fossil Day in the Geology building on Feb. 28th.
Not long into the afternoon, a 4-year-old in a T. rex shirt approached Fowler, who wore a dinosaur costume, poked her on the back and announced: “That’s a T. rex.”
“Good job,” Fowler said. The boy pulled off his backpack and extracted T. rex toy after T. rex toy, followed by a coloring page he’d completed downstairs.
“I love T. rexes,” he told her.
“What’s your second favorite dinosaur?” Fowler asked.
“I don’t have a second,” he said. “I have 1,000 extra favorites.”
Danos had her own moments. A group of brothers worked through the pet rock activity with enthusiasm, identifying rock types and writing names on their rocks’ fact sheets.
“They were super excited,” Danos said.
Later, a girl around 10 came through with her mother, learned the activity, then returned with all her siblings in tow.
“She was videoing them and taking pictures of all the rocks,” Danos said. “She was pumped.”
Both Fowler and Danos graduated from USU’s geology program, and both said the event reflects how broadly the field applies to different careers and interests.
“Most people are like, oh, you can do mining, that’s it,” Fowler said. “But there’s museum work, exploration teams, civil engineering, hydrology, consulting. If you hate being outdoors, there’s tons of lab work. If you hate lab work, there’s computer software.”
Danos made sure to add: “There is literally not one thing that somebody likes that is not applicable to geosciences.”
The Rock-n-Fossil event dates to 1997 but became an annual event in 2016 under Imler’s coordination. Around 40 volunteers staffed this year’s event, including professors, graduate students, undergraduates and even a high school student planning to attend USU next year. In the past, volunteers have reached counts of 50 to 55.
The event went virtual in 2021 due the coronavirus and returned to in-person format in 2022. Attendance has not had any issues since returning to an in-person format, though.
“Each year has fluctuated since then,” Imler said. “Our highest number was after COVID, but one of our lower numbers was also after COVID.”
Repeat families attend each year. A fourth-grade teacher took the time to tell Imler last month: “I’m so excited. We come every year.”
According to Imler, the reoccurring families bring her the most joy.
“It’s really just that excitement on the kids’ and even the adults’ faces when they’re looking at the cool fossils or the rocks,” she said. “It’s amazing how many people are passionate about rocks.”
The event’s goal is to provide accessible geology education for all ages and backgrounds.
Hadley Sintay A Utah State Geology sign hangs in the window of the Geology Building during Rock-n-Fossil Day on Feb. 28th.
“Even though most of these kids probably won’t choose to go into a geology field for their career, it’s still important to understand how our earth works,” Imler said. “It’s understanding the ground we’re standing on.”
The Geology Museum is open year-round and free to the public. Visitors can explore Percy the Utahraptor, a mammoth tusk discovered in Providence and collections from local sites gathered by USU faculty and students. No appointment is needed.
Rock-n-Fossil Day returns Feb. 27, 2027 — always the last Saturday of February.
For Danos, the museum’s appeal is simple.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re the grandparent or if you are the littlest kid,” she said. “Everyone gets to interact, and it just sparks minds.”