Coon Creek Science Center is located in Leapwood, McNairy County Tennessee.
The Coon Creek formation has been dated as approximately 75 million years old. This places the Coon Creek formation in the Upper or Late Cretaceous Period in the Mesozoic Era. Coon Creek was formed in a short span of time of only 10 million years. During this span of Geologic time Coon Creek was a bay with a semi-tropical climate. Conditions for life were ideal and my have been similar to the seaward side of today's Padre Island Island off the coast of Texas.  The shallow sea and turbulent storms of a semi tropical environment meant that creatures were covered up very quickly when they died and fell to the ocean floor leading to some of the best preserved fossils in the world.

The early 19th Century saw many families moving here from Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Kentucky. In the mid 1800's the Weeks family moved here and settled the area that is now known as Coon Creek.  When the Weeks family moved onto the Coon Creek property in 1867, it was mainly large timber which was cut and burned to clear the land for farming.  At this time, Coon Creek was only a small ditch and no fossils were uncovered.  Dave Weeks dug out the creek in several place for flood control but it was about 20 years before the fossils were exposed by erosion.

The top layer of soil is reddish in color and is known today as "McNairy Sand". Below this layer of McNairy Sand is a dark layer of glauconite clay, commonly known in this area as "Black Dirt", in which can be found the many different species of marine fossils. This top layer of soil was not very good for farming. The Weeks family would collect some of the "Black Dirt" from the creek and use it in their garden. The clay in this formation makes an excellent fertilizer.

The Weeks family had been living on and farming this land for almost 40 years when in 1915 a young man named Bruce Wade came to visit. Wade was a student at Johns Hopkins University and was doing his Doctoral Dissertation on "The Cretaceous Deposits of West Tennessee".

Upon arrival at the Weeks Farm and seeing first hand the abundance of fossil material, he changed his dissertation to "The Gastropoda of the Ripley Formation, Tennessee". In 1917 his paper was successfully defined and from thence forth he was known as Dr. Wade. Dr. Wade came back to Coon Creek in 1919 and 1920 and identified over 350 different species in the Coon Creek Formation. Dr. Wade and Mr. Weeks had become good friends over the years and at times Mr. Weeks would help Dr. Wade in his collections. Some of the fossils that Dr. Wade discovered were named after Mr. Weeks. To this day Dr. Wade is known as the "Father of Coon Creek".

There have been over 600 different species of fossils identified at Coon Creek ranging in size from microscopic to a 25 ft. Mosasaur. Coon Creek is one of the 12 most important fossil sites in the United States and, from my point of view, in the World. The wide varieties of species of fossils are found in pristine condition and in an abundance that it is hard to imagine. There are so many fossils here that we could have groups of 20 or more coming every day for the next 100 years and we would still be collecting fossils.

In 1988 the property of Coon Creek came up for sale. The Smith Family was living there at this time and wanted the property to continue to be used for scientific and educational purposes. The property gained the attention of the Memphis Museum Systems and was subsequently purchased by them later that year.

Upon purchase of the property construction began of the cabins (totaling 5), the Dining Hall and Kitchen and Bathrooms. A recreation field was built consisting of a Volley Ball Court, a Basketball goal and plenty of running room. A Nature Trail was added on with a wooden bridge crossing the Creek.  Picnic tables under the pine trees are used to practice cleaning fossils.

Our first groups started arriving in 1989 and we are proud to continue having groups come today. Many different Scientists have studied here over the years and Scientists are still studying this formation today. A group from U.T. Martin studied a certain fossil, the Pterotrigonia thoracica; otherwise simply known as "Ptero" (the P is silent).  In 1998, Dr. Mike Gibson from U.T. Martin was instrumental in having "Ptero" named as Tennessee's State Fossil.

If you are interested in visiting us At Coon Creek Science Center, please go to our programs page for information on the programs currently on offer.