Fossils in Cove Springs

After the storms had passed, I decided to go on a hike with my husband in Cove Springs (it’s never a good idea to hike in the forest by yourself). Cove Springs is in central Kentucky, near the capital of Frankfort. While hiking one of the narrow trails set up above the springs, we came across a giant tree that had been taken down. As creation explorers, we began to investigate the root system and rocks that were unearthed.

At first glance, I only saw gross, squirming slugs and worms among the roots, but there were many roots that were thick and long, which is a good indication that the tree is very old! I looked past all the bugs searching for more fun clues God placed in creation when I heard my husband exclaim, “Look here!” And what did I see but a flat white rock attached to the bottom of the root system! But in that rock, there were several impressions of . . . shells!? What were fossilized shells doing in the middle of Kentucky?

Do you know?

Well, there’s only one explanation that I could come up with for a fossilized shell in a forest in Kentucky. And we can read this explanation in Genesis 7:18–24. In that passage, the Bible tells us that “all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered” and that “all flesh died that moved on the earth.” Because there were so many dead things, many of them were fossilized. And if the Genesis account is true, we expect to find billions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth—just like I saw in Cove Springs.1

We saw two impressions with great detail showing the grooves of what the shell would have looked like when it was fossilized, and it looked just like something I would find on a beach today! At the top of the rock was a half of a bivalve shell that still had its hinge! And at the bottom was a group of several small shells, some even overlapped each other! You can see them for yourself in these pictures. After further study, these impressions were identified as brachiopods—a common bivalve fossil!

We had such a cool find that reminded us of our Creator and Redeemer. It served as a great reminder that because the flood account is true (and bears evidence all around us), we know the rest of the Bible is true, including the passages about God loving us so much that he sent his only Son to die on a cross for our sin.

While you’re out in creation, make sure you keep your eyes peeled—you’ll never know what you can find!