Fossil and Prairie Preserve

This is a 360 video of the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve in Rockford, Iowa. The Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve includes retired clay pits surrounded by restored tallgrass prairie and wetlands. The animals fossilized in the preserve are what remains after the sea dried up in Iowa 375 million years ago.

Let’s take a closer look at the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve. There are 6 different images that make up this 360 video. Once on an image, We will navigate by clicking on the right arrow which will move our view a quarter turn each time we click it.

00:00 - 00:51 Image 1

1. Clicks 1-5. An explorer walks on gravel away from the camera and the deep gully of rock. He is wearing a black and gray backpack on his back. In front of him and to the left, we see an information sign. In front and to the right, we see another informational sign. Above written in the blue sky are the words Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve, Rockford, Iowa
2. Clicks 6-8. Straight ahead we see an outcropping of trees on top of a grassy hill. Directly in front of us, we see a cluster of rocks that looks like a turtle sitting on the gravel. To our right is a deep gully of gray gravel.
3. Clicks 9-11. A hillside has come into view. It is made up of light brown dirt and has clumps of small bushes growing off of the side of the hill.
4. Clicks 12-18. We have turned completely around from where we started. In the distance, we see a small lake with trees and prairie behind it. In front of us and before the lake appears to be a dried up river bed. Tracks like running water run through the dried up river bed. The dried up river bed is surrounded by hills of dirt on both sides.
5. Clicks 19-23. In the distance, we see the start of the restored prairie grasses. If we were to move from our spot, we would need to climb up a slight hill of gray gravel.
6. Clicks 24-26. We are back where we started from. We see the informational sign to our left. Our explorer in the middle, and the informational sign on our right.

00:52- 02:00 Image 2

In front of us is a small tree growing out of the gray, gravel ground. Behind the tree is the start of the prairie grass. We can see the small lake to our right.

1. Clicks 1-3. The small lake from the previous image is directly in front of us. We now see that there are two lakes in this area of the preserve. The one that we saw in the first image is directly behind and to the right of the smaller lake that we can now see clearly. Our anchoring tree is to our left and there is a cluster of bushes to our right.
2. Clicks 4-9 The cluster of bushes that were to our left is now on our right. We are facing a small hill that has prairie grass on top of it. There are veins in the hill where water has run. The level ground in front of the hill creates a river bed like appearance with the river snaking around the hill that is in front of us. To the right of the hill, are several gray dune-like structures. The water veins in these ruling hills are larger.
3. Clicks 10-15. There is a stand of green, leafy trees in the distance. In front of us are reddish, brown clumps of grass.
4. Clicks 16-21. We see our explorer in front of us. In front of him and to the right is a metal bench with an informational sign in front of it. We are standing in the middle of the reddish, brown clumps of grass.
5. Clicks 21-26 We are back where we started. The green bush is in front of us.

02:10 - 03:57 Image 3

We are in a parking area within the preserve. The camera is sitting on a wooden picnic table with faded and missing red paint. In front of us is a stand of five trees within a green picnic area. To the right of the trees and the green area is a road that leads into the area towards us.

1. Clicks 1-3. We are facing three informational signs. Behind the signs is an open, green area. To the right of the signs is a gravel, dirt road that leads off into another section of the preserve. On the right side of the road is an open, wooden fence on top of a short concrete wall. It is made up of poles and a railing. The fence surrounds the concrete drop off to the right of the road.
2. Clicks 4-6. We are facing a circular building. The building is a dark brown color with a gray, circular top. There is a walkway that goes around the building about halfway up the side of the building. The walkway is connected to the building by what looks like large, upside down, L shaped clamps. Our explorer is walking toward the building and away from us.
3. Clicks 7-12 We are facing a second circular building. It is also a dark brown with a gray circular top. It also has large, upside down, L shaped clamps holding up a circular walkway that surrounds the building and is halfway up the side of the building.
4. Clicks 13-21. We are back to where we started. The clump of 5 trees are in front of us and there is a road leading to the area on our right.

03:58 - 5:02 Image 4

We are on brown, packed dirt. To our right is a high hill with grass on top. On the hill, you can see spider-like veins running down the hill. In front of us are two crater-sized dips in the ground. On our right is another hill with more vegetation on it.

1. Clicks 1-3. Our explorer is in front of us. To his right, is a stand of weed like trees. The dirt we are standing on has cracks and crevices like what would be made by fast moving water.
2. Clicks 4-7. In front of us we see more of the weed like trees. Behind that is a small mound of gray dirt.
3. Clicks 8-12. In front of us is the lake that we saw in the distance in other images.
4. Clicks 13-20. In front of us is a small hill of gray gravel with a larger light brown dirt hill behind it.
5. Clicks 21-25. We are back where we started. The large dirt hill is to our left. The two large creators are in front of us and there is a brown, dirt hill in the distance on our right.

05:03-6:11 Image 5

We are on a large, gravel path. The gravel is intermixed with larger rocks and dirt. We see our explorer in front of us. He is walking behind a tall stand of bushes. In front of us and to the right, we see the brown dirt path we were just on. There is a gravelly hill to our immediate left.

1. Clicks 1-5. We are at the base of a gravel hill. We can just make out the start of the hill’s incline. The hill in front of us appears made up of coarse, whole rocks.
2. Clicks 6-12. We are at the base of a fine gravel hill. We can just make out the start of the hill’s incline. The hill in front of us appears to be made up of finely crushed rock, like a salt hill spilled on a table.
3. Click 13-18. We have turned completely around. Now, we see a closeup of the vanes water makes as it rolls down this hill. In front of us are large rocks intermixed with smaller gravel.
4. Click 14-20. We are back where we started. Our explorer is on the right. He is walking behind a tall stand of bushes.

06:12- 07:59 Image 6

We are standing before a large brown hill of dirt and gravel. The dirt looks like cake batter before all of the ingredients are mixed together. You can see clumps of dirt and gravel mixed together. The way the camera is situated makes it appear as if you were playing hide and seek with friends and were trying to peek around the corner of the hill. Clicks 1-6. As the camera moves, we see a close up of the dirt and gravel. Our unmixed cake batter. The camera ends with a close up of our explorer sitting on the side of the hill looking closer at the dirt and rocks there.

1. Clicks 7-12. Our explorer is on our left. Ahead of us is another hill of dirt and rock. This hill appears to be more dirt than rock.
2. Clicks 13-20. We are now looking down a narrow canyon. There are tall hills of rock and dirt on both sides of the canyon.
3. Clicks 21-26. We are back where we started. We are standing before a large brown hill of dirt and gravel. The dirt looks like cake batter before all of the ingredients are mixed together.