340 million years a warm, shallow ocean covered most of what is now Indiana. This era was known as the Mississippian or "The Age of Crinoids." Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana, is world renowned the most famous localities for Crinoids, in fact it may be properly called classical Crinoidal ground, having been visited frequently by collectors, geologists and paleontologists, and having furnished the best material for the study of subcarboniferous Crinoids. James Hall, Meek, Worthen, Lyon, Cassiday, Owen, Shumard, have described and figured many species in various reports and books, from this locality, and new additions are made frequently.

Montgomery County is about 750 feet above the ocean, its surface covered mostly by glacial clays, sand, gravel and boulders, and only in the valleys, ravines and cuts the underlying subcarboniferous rocks are exposed, belonging mostly to the Keokuk Group which occupies the central part of the country. The stratas of the Keokuk Group consist of shale, soft sandstones and some limestone; the shales predominate and contain most of the Crinoids., but on account of the shales decomposing very easily by exposure to atmospheric influences the fossils are mostly found in fragments, and it is only at considerable depth that the undecomposed stratas can be reached, furnishing specimens in a good state of preservation. My objective is to offer to the collector, some of the finest Crinoids in the world, at the best possible prices. My belief is that collector's should be able to display these prizes in their home collections, in contrast to  museums who frequently store them in drawers never again to see the light of day.

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