What rock is under one point inside it, who administers the ground there, and what the law lets you collect. Point 35.60812, -83.49901, looked up 2026-10-18.
NOT LEGAL ADVICE. The federal rules below were checked against the statute or CFR section that governs them and carry their citations, but local closures, special designations and the managing office's own orders override them, and land status can be wrong at a boundary. Verify with the managing office before you collect.
Land
National Park Service Great Smoky Mountains National Park
code NPS · BLM Surface Management Agency layer, as of 2026-10-18
Macrostrat geologic map, medium scale, as of 2026-10-18. Map source: Horton, J.D., C.A. San Juan, and D.B. Stoeser. The State Geologic Map Compilation (SGMC) geodatabase of the conterminous United States. doi: 10.3133/ds1052. U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1052.
May I collect?
invertebrate fossils
prohibited
36 CFR 2.1.
vertebrate fossils
prohibited
36 CFR 2.1.
rocks and minerals
prohibited
36 CFR 2.1 prohibits possessing, removing, digging or disturbing fossils, minerals and cave formations. The only public exception is hand-gathered fruit, nuts, berries or empty seashells where a superintendent has designated it. METAL DETECTORS ARE ALSO PROHIBITED (36 CFR 2.1(a)(7)).
artifacts
PROHIBITED
36 CFR 2.1, and ARPA besides.
Rules checked against statute and the CFR on 2026-09-07.
State law
Not shown: on federal ground the federal rule above governs, and Outcrop skips the state block there by design. The point is in Tennessee.
If you find human remains, stop, do not disturb anything, and call the state archaeologist or the sheriff. Most states protect unmarked burials on private land as well as public - Montana, Florida, West Virginia and Delaware explicitly do - and NAGPRA covers federal and tribal land. A few states have not closed the private-land gap, which changes what can be charged and not what you should do.
What is established
BLM's Surface Management Agency layer names the parcel at 35.60812, -83.49901 as National Park Service (Great Smoky Mountains National Park), as of 2026-10-18.
Macrostrat's geologic map places Anakeesta Formation; Thunderhead Sandstone; Elkmont Sandstone at that point, as of 2026-10-18.
The rule for invertebrate fossils, vertebrate fossils, rocks and minerals, artifacts is traced to the law it cites, checked 2026-09-07.
What is not
That the rest of Great Smoky Mountains National Park gives the same answer. Land status is parcel-level and federal units hold private inholdings; the rock changes across a unit. Open this point in the live tool, or look up your own.
Whether there are fossils here. A geologic map is a compilation, not a field observation, and nothing on this page is a prediction. Outcrop's measured finding about formations and fossil localities comes from Texas and Alabama and is not applied to this page.
Closures and the unit's own orders. Not checked. The rule above is the agency's default, which the managing office can narrow.