Lab 6: Jackson Springs

Jackson Springs Park, and the surrounding area, was the first suburb in Macon and is now a private park. Our main purpose was to explore the geological diversity of the area and learn a bit about the history of this place.

We began with a hike around the park, picking up different rocks as we went, and Dr. Rood explained some of the history of the Park. It was once huge, encompassing most of the neighborhood surrounding it as well as the Baconsfield shopping center. Slowly, land development encroached on the natural beauty of the area as stores went up. At the same time, the land was being subdivided into lots for home development, which removed many of the old trees in the area for space and for use as energy in homes. Now, the park is just a small sliver hidden away in the Jackson Springs suburb.

The rocks we found were varied and gave us a chance to compare many of the samples we'd seen in class. I myself found a very bright pink Feldspar, while some of my other classmates were able to pick out Gneiss, Granite, Slate, and during our adventure we were able to see the ground strata of the area due to erosion by a stream nearby. Overall, the lab gave me insight into the history of my own hometown, and we got to actually get hammers in our hands and open some rocks, which made identification of the rocks during the test much easier.