The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) hosted an open house and rededication of the Horace R. Collins Laboratory Friday morning at Alum Creek State Park.

The laboratory, whose sign can be seen by motorists along South Old State Road, was first built in 1999, and is now newly renovated. The lab is marking its 25th anniversary in the same year that ODNR is celebrating its 75th anniversary.

“Our rock core now has a permanent, secure home,” said State Geologist Mark Jones, who heads the Ohio Geological Survey Division of ODNR. “This core kicked off the shale gas boom in Ohio.”

ODNR Director Mary Metz said the Geological Survey is actually 185 years old, and the website said, “The ODNR Division of Geological Survey was one of the original seven charter divisions of the ODNR at its inception in 1949.”

Metz said the laboratory not only received routine upgrades, but it has new educational displays, including fossils and dramatic art of Ohio’s geological past, with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. “We’re not stopping now, we’re going into the future,” she said. There’s also lab equipment to gauge seismic activity, make maps, store its collection of core samples (ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand feet down in the ground), and even practice research on the Alum Creek lakebed before heading out to Lake Erie.

The ODNR said the rock core repository is “one of the most unique libraries you’ll ever visit.”

Staff said there’s typically five geologists on site, and those present for the open house enjoyed showing off specimens and equipment to individuals gathered for the occasion.

How old are some of the rocks? For example, there’s Delaware Limestone dating back to the Devonian Period (389-387 million years ago), and puddingstone from the Proterozoic Age (2.48-2.22 billion years ago).

A bunch of rocks may not seem exciting to some, but there’s a great deal of application to practical matters. The Geological Survey page lists, among other subjects — abandoned underground mines, bedrock, coal, environmental geology, fossil collecting, geothermal energy, groundwater, landslides, mineral resources, oil and gas records, soils, structural and subsurface geology, and topographic maps.

Since it is a working lab, the Collins Laboratory typically isn’t open to the public, but the ODNR said it “is open by appointment for educators and researchers.” Among the educational programs is one called Ohio Rocks!

For more information, visit ohiodnr.gov.

Assistant Editor Gary Budzak photographs and reports on stories in eastern Delaware County and surrounding areas.