13-10 Protecting, Interpreting, and Celebrating Local Geoheritage: Community-Engaged Learning with Mississippi’s Second Fossil Park

Session: Building Connections Between Educators and Geoscientists to Foster the Future Workforce

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In 2025, the City of Columbus, Mississippi established the state’s second fossil park along the banks of the Luxapallila Creek in Propst Park. Named for a local university professor, World War II hero, and fossil enthusiast, the Dr. John “Jack” Kaye Cretaceous Fossil Park provides opportunities for visitors to learn about ancient Mississippi and the Cretaceous creatures that lived there, while also permitting visitors to search for and keep the 85-million-year-old shark teeth and other fossils found along the creek’s banks. In Fall 2025, Mississippi State University’s Principles of Paleoecology students partnered with the City of Columbus for a community-engaged learning project. Students applied course content while assisting with the fossil park’s development. Activities included trash pick-up at the site, staffing community outreach events, and developing informational brochures and posters. Students also sieved park sediments, identified the fossils it contained, and printed larger 3-D models to demonstrate fossil specimen morphology and show the community the types and shapes of fossils to be found. The Cretaceous fossils and printed 3-D models were featured at outreach events. Following dissemination to the community partners at the end of the semester, students were invited to present their contributions before the Columbus City Council. This community-engaged learning project focuses on a significant local geoheritage site, notable as sourcing most of Mississippi’s dinosaur fossils. Student involvement is helping to protect, interpret, and celebrate the local geoheritage, which is often unfamiliar to the public.

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