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Gray Tennessee Fossil Site & Museum

All photos and illustrations by Pat Johns ©2008
All Rights Reserved
See links to article references at the end of the article.

January, 2008

"Tennessee's Gray Fossil Site is a 4.5 to 7 million-year-old lake bed formed in a sinkhole. Because the lake would have been a magnet for life, recovered fossils include everything from fish, frogs, and salamanders, to short-faced bears, saber-toothed cats, and rhinos. The site even contains a strange, shovel-tusked elephant whose intruding lower jaw held flat, bladelike lower tusks used for stripping the bark of trees and tearing up vegetation"
    ~ Dr. Steven Wallace, Director of the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, from an article in Now & Then, The Appalachian Magazine (see link at the end of the article)

Recommended Reading : "Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip"

Click on the image at left to learn more . . .
"Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway follows the zany travels of a paleontologist and an artist as they drive across the American West in search of fossils. Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, men and women dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rexes to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. Much of their travels are spent in remote places few people visit, where they discover small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossilized bones, and the remains of ancient seashores tracked with the footprints of dinosaurs. What soon becomes evident is that fossils are everywhere; it only takes knowing what to look for to find them--even at 65 miles per hour."
     - Book Description from Amazon.com

The Gray Fossil Site was discovered in 2000 when Tennessee Department of Transportation workers were widening state route 75 along a 1-mile stretch. In May of that year, workers dug up black clay deposits which drew concerns about the stability of the soil for the road project. DOT geologists were brought in and further digging unearthed bone fragments.

In June, further exploration yielded animal skulls (including an alligator) , ribs, legs and backbones. The DOT stopped work at the end of June. Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist visited the site with state geologists, DOT representatives and members of the ETSU Environmental department.

The discovery of a rhino led them to the conclusion that the fossils were of the Miocene Epoch (4.5+ million years old.)

Eventually, the road was realigned and Dr. Steven Wallace was hired to oversee the excavation of the site. Before leaving office, Gov. Sundquist presented ETSU with an $8 million grant to build and visitor museum/research facility.

The Museum is called the ETSU and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center at the Gray Fossil Site. General Shale Brick, Inc. is headquartered in Johnson City and is the largest manufacturer of bricks in the U.S. They donated the over 200,000 bricks for the museum.

In addition, General Shale also provide the bricks for "The Watering Hole", a 175-square foot brick structure at the museum entrance which was carved by masonry sculptor Johnny Hagerman, the staff sculptor for General Shale Brick (see link to more information below.) According to a recent interview with him by KnoxNews (see link below):

"His work was good enough in the late 1980s for the Opryland Hotel (now Gaylord Opryland). Hagerman created two outdoor panels, roughly 12 feet by 16 feet, for the resort hotel. One depicts the country music heritage of the Grand Ole Opry with images of Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff. The other panel offers relief images of Andrew Jackson, a riverboat and the Nashville skyline."

The site is approximately 5 acres and core samples of rich fossil deposits have been made up to 140 feet. The knowledgeable tour guides (who also work at the site and its research facilities) will tell you that less than 1% of the site has been excavated and they anticipate another 200 years of work!

The museum opened in August of 2007. It is a 33,000 square foot building and one of the few museums actually located on a fossil site. The excavation teams had to work early on to dig through the soil excavated for the museum building. In fact that is where they discovered the "new" species, a Red Panda, one of 2 new species discovered at the site in its brief history of excavation.

Just inside the front door, the museum has a small but interesting gift shop with related books, toys and clothing. You can purchase a copy of ETSU's Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine, an interesting magazine published 3 times each year since 1984 by the Center for Appalachian Studies.

The Gray Fossil Site and Museum make a wonderful outing for visitors of any age or background. It is located on state route 75, 2 miles from the Interstate-26 Gray Exit 13. It is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last guided tour starts at 4:00 p.m.

A tour group and the lobby at the Gray Fossil Site Museum:

The entrance and the back of the museum:

The Fossil Site and a museum exhibit:

The museum movie and an outside visitor:

Directions to The Gray Fossil Site from Watauga Lake:

Take Hwy. 321 to the I-26 Exit in Johnson City. Exit at Gray Exit 13. Turn left (west). The museum is approximately 2 miles ahead on the left.

Links to references in this article and to sites related to Shady Valley Tennessee:

• ETSU Gray Fossil Site Website
• ETSU Now and Then Magazine
• ETSU Now and Then Magazine about the Gray Fossil Site
• Tennessee Division of Geology Website and the Gray Fossil Site
• ETSU Accent Newsletter article about the opening of the Gray Fossil Site Museum
• KnowNews interview with Brick Sculptor Johnny Hagerman