Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site

The Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site is the former Union Chapel Mine, a surface coal mine near Sumiton in Walker County.

The exposed layers of slate and shale at the former coal mine are rich in fossil impressions of plants and animals living during the Paleozoic period before the emergence of dinosaurs.

High school science teacher Ashley Allen brought the site's rich fossil deposits to the attention of the scientific community. They joined with amateur fossil hunters in campaigning against the planned reclamation of the former mining site. Instead the site was purchased by the state of Alabama and is managed by the Alabama Paleontological Society.

In Spring 2010 housewife Cindy Wallace made a significant find while fossil-hunting with her son, Gavin. A split piece of slate revealed seven perfectly-preserved footprints from Attenosaurus subulensis, a salamander that was the largest land creature alive during that period.

References

• Hunt, Adrian P., Spencer G. Lucas and Nicholas D. Pyenson (2005) "The significance of the Union Chapel Mine Site: A Lower Pennsylvanian (Westphalian A) Ichnological Konzentrat-Lagerstätte, Alabama, USA." in Buta, R. J., Rindsberg, A. K., and Kopaska-Merkel, D. C., eds., Pennsylvanian Footprints in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama. Alabama Paleontological Society Monograph No. 1
• Spencer, Thomas (April 12, 2010) "Walker County woman finds ancient amphibian fossil." Birmingham News