Abstract Riverbluff Cave developed near the southern margin of the Springfield Plateau as a single passage between James River and its tributary, Ward Branch. Portions of the cave preserve a general fining-upward sediment sequence, but with highly fossiliferous gravel beds near the middle. These gravel beds include fragments of various vertebrates, including mammoth and horse. Trackways and claw marks are also preserved atop the sediment in numerous locations. Cosmogenic isotope data provide burial dates for some of the sediment layers and fossil remains. The earliest sediment (reverse magnetic polarity) entered the cave at ~1.1 Ma, while the fossiliferous gravel bed is dated at ~0.74 Ma. The overlying laminated silts and clays have normal polarity with a burial date of ~0.65 Ma at the base. Thus, the sediment sequence spans the Matuyama/Brunhes paleomagnetic datum, and records at least 450 ka of sedimentation within the cave.

Abstract This field trip provides an overview of geological features in southwestern Missouri that are related to the American Civil War and to human culture. This includes the geology and history of the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield (where the second important battle of the American Civil War was fought on 10 August 1861), Zágonyi’s Charge (25 October 1861), the Battle of Springfield (8 January 1863), and the gravestones and monuments of the National Cemetery in Springfield in which many of those who fought at Wilson’s Creek and other Civil War conflicts are buried. Other stops include the Springfield Underground and the quarries and facilities at what was once the town of Phenix (which, along with Carthage, Missouri, was the home of some of the largest dimension-stone quarries west of the Mississippi River); and a reconstructed mill site in Point Lookout, just south of Branson. Most of the field trip involves outcrops, quarries, and bedrock composed of the Mississippian Burlington-Keokuk limestones (undivided), providing numerous chances to examine outcrops and products made of limestone and chert.