Here are our fearless leaders, Sandy and Dave Douglass. They are fierce, brave rock and fossil hunters!

See pictures from their latest trip!

Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop has been a family run business since 1970. Before Sandy, Dave's only love was fossils. Now, he and Sandy share their love for each other, as well as their love of nature's beautiful creations. 

We have compiled a little pre-history and history photos about the Rock Shop. All photos and stories courtesy of the lovely and talented June Lyon Douglass, Dave's mom. (click here)

June Douglass took Dave on his first fossil hunt when Dave was 8. She has been an avid hunter ever since. While digging for fossils with her family, June found the first squid fossil, putting squids back 100 million years to the Pennsylvanian Period. It was named after her, and can be seen both in our in house museum and in our on-line museum.   

photo by Geoff Sheerer/Pioneer Press

Dave and Sandy page through Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop with Evanston author Stuart Murphy (far right). Mr. Murphy wrote this book based on Dave's shop to help teach mathematics to children. Please see our children's page for more information on this book.

Photo by Tom Cruze/Sun Times 4/2000

Sandy is showing off a T-rex tooth while Dave is holding the shoulder bone of a triceratops.

This is Orville Gilpin. He helped us reconstruct our cave bear skeleton, amongst other things. We even gave him his own page to show how special he is!