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keep an eye out for construction too, which sometimes exposes the same Mahantango formation found at Beltzville Park. Good luck, hope you find some nice Trilos

Not much in the Northeast. I beg to differ. As Timmy said, look into Big Brook NJ. Calvert Cliffs, Deer Lake PA, Tower City PA, St Clair PA, Beltzville Reservoir PA, almost any tailings pile in coal country PA like Shamoken. You could also hit some of my Triassic spots in PA, there's secret spot #4, secret spot #6 and #7. Honestly, there's plenty around here (Northeast). You just have to get out there and find them. Good luck.

Hello from down the road in West Chester.You in fact live in a great area for fossils. I'm up there often. You're not far, about an hours drive, from a half dozen very good locations. Deer Lake, Beltzville Res, St Clair, Birdsboro, Douglasville, Phoenixville, Tower City to name a few. If you need directions or help, PM me. Welcome aboard.

I returned this week from a delectible vacation, sampling from a menu of delicious fossil sites on the way to my destination in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Our first stop was Ramanessin Brook, New Jersey, where the Cretaceous ambience whet our appetites, even as the flowing stream wet our socks. While my wife jumped right in, relishing the catch of the day, I remained at the bar awhile, letting my eyes roam wishfully, hoping to pick up a real beauty of a fossil. We helped ourselves to a variety of shark teeth, including a nice little tiger shark (Galeocerdo sp., I think), fish teeth (Anomoeodus phaseolus), a small fossil which I think is an ammonite piece, some burrows (ghost shrimp?), some interesting rocks, and a strange little yellow stone with what seems to be a bit of crinoid stem along with a lacy impression resembling an insect wing. I'd love to hear any possible id's. We were happy with our visit, even with the small portions, as we needed to continue on our southern journey. I will post a few more close-up photos later on. ..... ..... .......................... After another day of turnpike driving, we stopped at the Aurora Fossil Museum, not far from our destination. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and the museum was closed. I had hoped to return during the week, but we never did find the time. While we were there, we made ourselves comfortable at the sit-down site across the street, scanning the menu posted in the corner. Many of our favorite sharks and invertebrates were listed, and I opted for a large helping of pungo crusted coral, with a few snails as an appetizer, and followed by a few urchin spines and small teeth. My lovely wife wanted to impress her friends with the biggest, sharpest teeth on the menu. We were joined for a while by some wonderful volunteers who had been in town to help clean up after Irene. They already had enough on their plates and decided not to sit down for more. ..... ........................... Most of our week was spent walking the lovely beaches, but we never did find a shark tooth. We really didn't look all that hard though. I know they're out there and I'm grateful to forum members who pointed me in the right direction, but we were happy to just enjoy the beauty of the place. We did make a trip, however, to Green Mill Run in Greenville, NC. The day started well, though a little cloudy and with a 30 percent chance of rain. Then it poured the entire drive to Greenville. We kept hoping for the 70 percent chance of no rain. Shortly before we arrived at Green Springs Park, the rain stopped. We found the brook, it was closer than I had realized, and it was much more inviting than I had imagined. The rain began again, but just a few sprinkles with a little thunder in the distance. We were happy to be there. My wife, as usual, was served the biggest and best fossil, an inch and a half tooth of what I think is a great white. I found one tooth about the same size, but much too badly worn to identify. As advertised, we were served enormous portions of sparkling glass, but also large helpings of a wide selection of shark teeth, a sawfish tooth, some small belemnite pieces and a small crocodile scute. I am not a connoisseur of shark teeth, and have yet to identify many of them, but it was a terrific experience and I'd love to return some day. ..... ..... ............................. Thanks to the generous posts of many forum members and especially to Tim's spot-on directions, we were able to spend a few hours in the Pennsylvanian marsh of St Clair, PA. What a beautiful spot for an autumn picnic. The weather was gorgeous and the ferns were incredible. Vegetation that would have been exciting finds anywhere else were set aside as rejects here. We never found that "perfect" plate, but I'm thrilled with the pieces we did find. I can't wait to go back. .......................... Thanks to John, we made a stop in Devonian Beltzville, PA, searching for crinoids, trilobites and whatever may be the specialty of the day. Our time was limited, as we still had a long drive home to Massachusetts, but we were pleased with the partial bits and pieces we found. Photos coming soon. Mike G

great post, and nice hauls. Id like to use your travel agent for my next vacation. What kind of rock are the Beltzville fossils in?

Thanks for the heads-up Don, but Beltzville SP allows fossil collecting, and even have a page about it on their website. Besides that, i would never collect from a state park. John - thanks for the id on the trilo, I collected these there this spring, but i will give you a heads up if i go again - i may know the location where you are talking about.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Neal and my wife and I have decided to get into fossil collecting as a hobby. We recently spent a day at Big Brook in Monmouth County, NJ and gathered a few interesting specimens. We mostly found an assortment of the shark teeth that are common to the area, but also a small black claw of unknown origin and some pieces that appear to be crab leg sections. My wife found a nice little bird point arrowhead which still elicits my envy. Our next trip will be to Beltzville State Park in PA, so hopefully we find something there. Anyway, I have for the past few days enjoyed reading through these boards and seeing the awesome and varied things that you people have pulled out of the earth. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to the discussion in the near future. Thanks! Neal

There are devonian trilobites at beltzville state park near jim thorpe. I found a full one there two weeks ago, check out this link- http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/polycomm/june/por61397.htm

Over the long and HOT!!! July 4th holiday weekend I got out to do some exploring. Unlike Shamalama (Dave)who was smart and stayed indoors off of those heat absorbing rocks, lol, we continued on through the 100+ temps and baked ourselves alive in search of my beloved fossils. A friend and I started out on Sat. morning in Turbotville, then headed down and over to Liverpool and Seven Stars area off of 11/15 S, from there drove down and over to the Halifax/Millerburg area for some arrowhead hunting along 147N, then up and across 209E into the coalfields..stopping off at spots along/near the route. We finished out the day hitting Deer Lake before calling it a night. The huge rockpiles that use to make up the site(Deer Lake) have been hauled off and what's left there to sort through for fossils is pretty slim-pickins. We checked out pits already dug around the bankwalls but it was a sad way to end the day without finding any fossils there like I usually do. Sun. morning we headed to Beltzville St. Pk. but found the water level in the Lake way too high to dig the fossils loose out of the lakebed without a swimmingsuit with snorkel and googles. We then worked our way north towards Wilkes Barre/Scranton, zig-zagging to different places checking out old coal strip mines and spoilpiles. We finished out the day in Carbondale having found some nice ferns and wood/bark specimens along the way. Mon. morning we drove over to the Milford/Matamoras area for some trilobite hunting but didn't do so well because I didn't really know where to go in the region for exposures to search at but we poked around at a few spots we seen along the roadways, drove around the area enjoying the views of the beautiful Delaware Water Gap before getting back on Rt 6W, hitting some spots to fossil hunt and gold prospect along the way in some mountain streams and exposures, then to 220S stopping off for some more fossil hunting and prospecting and eventually pulled into home late evening..did I mention how great those ice cold, little mountain streams felt like on the hottest weekend of the year...Ahhhhhhh. What an enjoyable weekend despite the unbearable heat. I'll get pics posted soon...

This picture is from the same series of trips as the last one, from a site in a spillway at Beltzville State Park, part of the Mahantango formation. I can only think this one is some sort of coral, but I really don't know, and as for what type of coral, I have no idea. The sticker in the photographs is 3/4" diameter. http://www.mypicx.com/05172010/Unknown_Coral/

I was at a spillway in Beltzville State Park operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The site is part of the Mahantango Fm, Upper Devonian period. I found the fossil in the link below in a very circular hole through a boulder about the thickness of your lower arm. I believe this was probably the hole from a dud stick of dynamite that was used to make the spill way. On the side of the hole is where I found it. The picture makes it look like it is composed of columnals, but those are just cracks because it fell apart when collected. The only thing I could think of that it could be is some odd form of preservation of a crinoid. http://www.mypicx.com/05162010/Wierd_Fossil/

There is a spot that's about 5 miles from Beltzville Res. I've found at least a dozen nice partial Trilobites, tons of crinoid sections and corals. If you'd like to do a hunt together, let me know. I'd like to get back there. Just PM me.

Yes, I have a very amusing memory of calling a lunch break, and seeing my kids bolt off to the car, leaving me behind with the 40 pounds of rocks and all our rock equipment. It was actually a good bit more than 40 pounds, but I was highly motivated to thin it down a bit before lugging it all back to the car. (the kids did eventually, when they couldn't get to the food, come back to see what had happened to me, and help to carry the rocks the last half of the way Beltzville is only about an hour and a half from my house, which is why we went there. I don't think there are other trilobite sites nearby, are there? My youngest son, who is a real fossil addict, would dearly love to find a trilobite.

hey Mary Ann, knowing other things that are found there, i think trilobites can be found there too as i have found them associated with that fauna. But i haven't found any. in any case, beltzville park wouldn't be the best place to find trilobites. did you have to carry your 40 pounds of rocks? was that a long hike? i sometimes carry up to 175 lb or so but i am crazy. i guess you are infected with the fossil virus also. don't worry about not finding trilobites..they are not as elusive as you think....you'll find a bunch in time

Mary Ann, you can also look for fossils by Pavilion II by the shore in Beltzville park...

Welcome!!! I am in your area and as a relative newbie always looking for someone more experienced to go hunting with. I'll be posting some photos of stuff I collected at Beltzville PA a few weeks ago later today. This is a great Forum and I am sure you will enjoy getting to know everyone here. I've been to Mont Clare as well, and tho it is indeed tough collecting there, it might be fun to see who in the group wanted to go, since it has some good shade in this hot weather. I'd love to go back there, and have just been waiting for a good excuse. Happy Hunting!

Thanks Eddie! I have hooked up with the NJPS, which is helping a lot...I am taking the kids on a trip to Beltzville PA with them this coming Friday. I had hooked up with a group for Big Brook as well on the 28th, but now my oldest son's birthday party is scheduled for that day, so I have to figure out if I can run down there first thing in the AM and still be back in time to prepare for the party...since it is over an hour from here, that will be tough, but you never know...I might be crazy enough to give it a try!!! (But boy will I be in big trouble if I am late ) Thanks for the offer of help...let me know if you do still know people who fossil hunt in NJ...I'd still love to meet them.

Hello - I would like to introduce myself. My name is Dan and I live in Central NJ. My wife, son and I began fossil hunting last summer as a way to get my son away from video games. We started at Big Brood NJ and became hooked. Since then, we have been back there many times, gone to Shark River in NJ, St. Clair and Beltzville in PA, Madison in NY, Westmorland and Stratford Hall in VA, Calvert in MD and are constanly looking for new places to check out. Someone from another forum recommended this site to me and I hope to be an active member. Regards Dan

I haven't been to St. Clair, but here is a link to a site that lists directions to several other PA sites for fossil collecting. http://www.pennminerals.com/collecting.htm If you do a quick search there are probably other web pages that can help you as well. Also, there is an OOP book that is not too hard to find if you search a bit called "Fossil Collecting in PA" (I have a copy on the way that I just ordered from Amazon for $12 - a real steal, it usually goes for a good bit more!) that could help. Where do you live? the NJ Paleontology group is going on a fossil trip to Beltzville, PA on June 20 and it might be a fun trip for you and your child to participate in...it is a good Trilobite site and easy for children to access. You can find their website at http://www.njpaleo.org There is another site in PA as well that has fossil ferns and such...I can give you directions to it if you PM me. It is a little town called Mont Clare, PA. It is a Triassic site. There are not many of those on the East Coast! Best of luck!