Parrsboro Rock & Mineral Shop & Museum - Parrsboro, NS - Mom and Pop Rock Shops on Waymarking.com

This little T-Rex, fearsome as he may appear, seems to be a life sized juvenile. Prowling the lawn in front, he has been appointed guard dinosaur for a rock and fossil shop/museum in Parrsboro, The Parrsboro Rock & Mineral Shop & Museum. Made of concrete and standing about six feet tall, he is just the right height to look many people directly on the eye, scaring away any who may have come with nefarious intentions.

The rock shop/museum which our T-Rex guards has a bit of history attached to it. Founded in 1948, it is the oldest registered rock shop in Canada, which later became a combination rock shop and museum. This came about after the proprietor had amassed a considerable collection of rare fossils to complement his already impressive collection of rocks and minerals representative of the local geology. The majority of the fossils in the collection are local, the proprietor, Eldon George having been the first real fossil hunter in Nova Scotia.

In its large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils are the world's smallest dinosaur footprints, each the size of a penny. The footprint fossils were discovered locally on March 31, 1983 by Eldon George, proprietor of the shop.

Much like the find on Bonanza Creek at Dawson City in the Yukon which started the Klondike Gold Rush, Eldon's find touched off a "Gold Rush" style influx of fossil hunters to Nova Scotia.

See a description of the shop/museum and the find below.

Fossil hunter looks back on
lifetime of exploring the past

BY AARON BESWICK TRURO BUREAU
Published August 30, 2012 - 8:30pm

Owner of rock and mineral shop forced to closed doors after 60 years

PARRSBORO — This is a story about time.

About what it gives, what it takes away and how we look at it.

Eldon George knows time.

The son of a sea captain, he has traced his fingers across the bones of the earth. Seventy-one years ago, he found where a small, cold-blooded creature ran across a brook 300 million years ago.

Scientists descended on Parrsboro to examine the bones, foot prints, trees and ferns that left their mark in stone.

George and his many fossilized discoveries have been featured in National Geographic four times.

Earlier this month, the 82-year-old sat on a shaded bench in his yard, looking at a For Sale sign on the rock shop and museum he opened more than 60 years ago in the Parrsboro home his father built.

He talked about time.

The deep time drawn in the stone shoulders exposed along the Minas Basin by the slow shift of continents.

The time his father lashed him to the wheel of a two-masted schooner and how it ran with the great swell, loaded with apples destined for Parrsboro cellars.

“I’ve had an interesting life,” said George. “And now it’s time for things to be taken away.”
Read more at the Halifax Chronicle Herald

In 2015, owner Eldon George, sold the Parrsboro Rock and Mineral Shop and Museum after 67 years as owner and manager. Regrettably, Mr. George passed away peacefully November 29, 2018 at the age of 87.

The Parrsboro Rock and Mineral Shop and Museum is now the Fundy Geological Museum.