It was going to be another beautiful weekend to hunt fossils on a Cretaceous Period creek in South Alabama. The meeting area was a truck stop outside of Montgomery, Alabama with the site being several minutes from there. We had a good number of enthusiastic folks show up with introductions on hand meeting people and making new friends, which is the highlight of every field trip hunting the one thing we all have in common... marine fossils! After several minutes of introductions and highlights the caravan hits the road. The property owner was so gracious for allowing us to hunt on their property and it didn't disappoint! We drove through a pasture with horses all around us, such beauty!
We arrived at a heavily wooded area with a timber road cut into the woods. Such a beautiful area to park our vehicles. Picture by Marianne
You see this roadway leading down into heavily dense woodland and canopy of trees it feels like you are in another world! Then you see the creek in its pristine setting! Who wouldn't get lost in this! So, so beautiful! Pic#1- Heavily grassed roadway, Pic#2- Sun shining through the canopy of trees
Several yards from the heavily grassed roadway was this pathway through the tall weeds and grasses the owner of the property cut for us onto the creek... so sweet for her to accommodate us in that way... wow! We all find our spots and start sifting. Some right off the bat were finding shark teeth, others Native artifacts such as broken pottery shards with designs on them, what awesome finds to start the day!
When I find a spot I usually stay there for the duration, but this time I moved around some, more than usual finding teeth... mostly fish teeth, shark Coprolite, Bivalve/Gastropod steinkerns, pottery shards and pieces of arrowheads. I had moved to another area from where I began...stayed there till we had to leave. It was in that spot I found a complete arrowhead made of a Milky Quartz. Pictured, 2 broken arrowheads and complete one. Pottery shard, Enchodus fish teeth, fish and shark poop, Scapanorynchus teeth and Gastropod
It was definitely the find of the day! It was another great day and weekend for another fossil hunt... so looking forward to going back!
I found this really cool, very rusted horseshoe thinking it was quite large for a regular horse... then someone told me it was a draft horse shoe. Wow, maybe turn of the century draft horse that plowed fields in the area? I took the horseshoe and goose feather I found on the property, put a native touch to it and brought it to life. I found an old picture of a farmer plowing his field with a draft horse, who knows the farmer may have been Native American? Placed the items into a worn shadowbox frame for display.
Dinnertime was around the corner. Driving up the interstate you are bombarded with signage of a restaurant on each exit...so many choices! I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat but one thing was on my mind, a Shoney's Hot Fudge Cake approximately an hour away. I'm thinking I need to eat first and still couldn't decide what and where to eat so at this point I pretty much threw caution to the wind. As I got closer to Shoney's I stopped and got my Hot Fudge Cake! Who passes a Shoney's and doesn't stop to get one? I ate the thing in my vehicle and I spoiled dinner, but it was so worth it!
I make it a point when I visit a creek to hunt marine fossils, always bring back a bucket of the gravel to micro sift, this bucket didn't disappoint! Here are the finds from that trip... Pic#1- the bucket of gravel, Pic#2- Shark Coprolite (poop), Pic#3- Scapanorynchnus, Squalicorax, Pic#4- Enchodus teeth, Pic#5- Fish Coprolites (poop), Pic#6- Quartz crystals, Pic#7- Xiphactinus teeth?, Pic#8- pieces of Gastropod, Pic#9- Urchin spines with roots, Pic#10- Pycnodont teeth and ray tooth
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