Field Trips on Natural Resources

Resource Field Trip Possibilities
Barite .
Chert The Tennessee State Museum has an exhibit on native people with chert tools and weapons on display.
Clay Kentucky-Tennessee Clay company
Mining and Processing Plant in Gleason, TN
615-365-0852 - Nashville Office

Old Hickory Clay Co. Mining in Gleason (Weakley Co.) P.O. Box 66, Hickory, KY 42051-0066
Phone (270) 247-3042
Chalcopyrite (copper) BURRA BURRA MINE
Historic Mine Site Ducktown Basin Museum
Ducktown, TN. (423)496-5778
Ken Rush - Museum Director (Collecting by appointment only - call ahead!)
Coal

Coke Oven Museum, Dunlap, TN (Sequatchie County) 
Open only 3 days a week. Call before you come. (423) 949-2156 

Coal Miner's Museum 216 N. Main St. Lake City, TN  37769
Local Phone: 865-426-7914
Other Phone: 865-291-2898

Coal Creek Discovery Trail -- Lake City, TN 37769 - 865-457-4547
Relive the history and explore the scenic mountains and streams of Coal Creek by traveling this new trail. Discover how the Coal Creek miners helped end the State's Convict Lease System by starting the Coal Creek War and how the town survived two of the largest mining disasters in the world. The trail will take you from Militia Hill where the miners fought against the Tennessee Militia to the collapsed mines to where the miners are buried under their headstones engraved with their farewell messages written while buried alive in the ruble.

Blue Heron Community is an oral history-based exhibit of an old coal camp that closed in the 1960s. It is located in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area run by the National park Service located in Tennessee and Kentucky. The Big South Fork Scenic Railway is one way to get there. Another is by car. A third is by foot. The only original structure that remains is the large coal tipple that dumped the coal into rail cars. The other structures are "ghost"structures where a visitor can access taped interviews of former residents of the community.
Fluorite .
Galena (lead)

.
Gypsum Gypsum is most easily found on the Highland Rim, where it form nodules in limestone.
Ilmenite (titanium) .
Iron Oxides The town of Cumberland Furnace, the first iron foundry on the Western Highland Rim, has a walking tour around the village, and is in the process of turning a remaining log cabin into an "Iron Museum"
Pyrite (Iron/Sulfur)
Limestone and Marble Both Vulcan Industries and the Rogers Group permit school groups to visit their quarries. Contact the quarry closets to you
Mussel Shells Visit a Pearl Farm at The Birdsong Resort 255 Marina Road - 9 Miles North of Exit 133 on I-40 Camden Kentucky Lake, Tennessee 38320-9699 731.584.7880

American Pearl Company
 Latendresse Family
Nashville Tennessee. USA 
Phone: 615-353-1231 Fax: 615-353-8988  
Toll Free: 1-800-455-6602

The McClung Museum in Knoxville has a permanent exhibit on Tennessee's fresh water mussels.
Oil/Natural Gas
Phosphate

The Phosphate Museum,108 Public Sq. Mount Pleasant, TN  38474 Local Phone: 931-379-9511 located in the central square in Mt Pleasant, Tennessee (Maury County) has a collection of news articles and artifacts on phosphate mining
Saltpeter The best exhibit on saltpeter mining is at Mammoth Cave. The Historic tour

Several caves in which saltpeter was mined are open to the public
Sand & Gravel Short Mountain Silica Company is located at 170 Silica Rd, Mooresburg, TN 37811 and telephone number is 423-272-5700. Established in 1987, Darrell Trigg is manager. The regional market is for silica sand. They employ 46.

US Silica - Jackson, TN
105 Burkett Switch Road, Jackson, TN 38301 (800) 345-6170

Sandstone In order to get stone to build new buildings University of the South at Sewanee reopened some sandstone quarries.

Sphalerite (zinc)