Hunting Locations and Land Sites

[grahamguti]

Hi everyone, fellow Charlestonian here. I've recently got back into shark teeth hunting and have been to a few locations such as behind the YMCA and in those creek branches round there. I am posting here to ask everyone if they have any good locations they would share. I know this community is tight lipped and secretive when it comes to this, but I was hoping there would be a few individuals who didn't mind helping someone actually find some good finds. I get most sites are on private property or the individual has connections to get onto quarries (i.e. Black River Fossils), but I know there are viable locations out there that are not well known too. Thank you.

[Darbi]

Welcome to TFF!

I'm not familiar with the Charleston area. I heard there's Charleston Fossil Adventures, a guided fossil hunt company in your area, and also Palmetto Paleontological Society. Many paleontological/fossil societies have fossil hunt trips and has an access to the private properties with permission.

[Fossildude19]

A lot of fossil hunting includes research and, ... well, ...  actual hunting.  

You should be prepared to get out and explore new spots and research formation names, and do some bushwhacking and door knocking to find new sites and get permission to hunt private property. 

Check with construction crews when you see them digging near fossil bearing areas. Ask for permission to hunt when they are not working, or working in a different spot from where you want to look. 

It never hurts to ask.

 

If it was easy, they would call it Fossil Finding.  

 

Anyone who would like to answer the OP is welcome to send him a PM. 

Good luck. 

 

[Kane]

And just to add to Tim's good advice above, you may wish to look into joining a local rock/mineral club. This may present an opportunity to go on club trips with knowledgable collectors, and to gain access to areas and quarries that would otherwise be off-limits to non-club members.

[grahamguti]

Thank you all!

[grahamguti]

@Fossildude19 Here in the Summerville area and all the way up to Harleyville, they have really cracked down on fossil hunters though. Like with the big cement quarries, they're owned by big corporations who do not want any lawsuits from injuries I bet. And with the abandoned mines, there's no trespassing signs. You're left to park on the side of roads and creek walk. Which isn't that bad.

[Kane]

Well, with abandoned mines, you can always do some research on who currently owns the property, reach out and ask permission. With quarries, if you have safety equipment, are willing to sign a liability waiver, and agree to observe all safety rules (such as not going near the working equipment or too close to the quarry walls) you can always ask the owner. In either case, the worst they can say is "no." 

[grahamguti]

@Kane but how would I go about finding the name of the owner when the mines do not have any signs listing their name or number (and no where to be found online either).  Or the quarries are usually owned by an LLC such as Argos or Giant--where one specific owner could not be contacted (probably rich business men in other states). I just feel these giant busy quarries have no room for suing or a death for a person walking near 100' drops. The better question is what happens if you are caught walking on an abandoned mine.

[Kane]

34 minutes ago, grahamguti said:

@Kane but how would I go about finding the name of the owner when the mines do not have any signs of its name, or is owned by an LLC such as Argos or Giant---whose are probably billionaire owners in other states haha.

Reach out to your municipality which keeps records of every person/entity who owns property in their jurisdiction as that is essential for taxes and land zoning. You can use official maps to determine the lot address and make inquiries from there.

 

If you are caught trespassing on private property you can be charged.

[FranzBernhard]

3 hours ago, Kane said:

If you are caught trespassing on private property you can be charged.

@grahamguti: Don´t forget, there is also a chance to be shot while trespassing...

Franz Bernhard

[grahamguti]

@FranzBernhard you still have to present as a threat. @Kane exactly, so you’re left to public access locations—which have been over hunted. That’s why I’m asking if anyone has any spots they aren’t like “selfish” about, ya know? I’d trade my spots all day. It’s about the love of the hunt. 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

1.  Welcome

2.  Ask the county tax office who owns properties of interest.

3.  There are no shortcuts to good sites.  People guard them as closely as social security numbers, especially if they earned them personally.  My last 3 scouting missions in TX were all busts, but I’m undaunted.  Take the long view, and enjoy.

[grahamguti]

@Uncle Siphuncle Thank you! In my experience, fossils are everywhere. It is finding a spot where you are allowed to look for them that I was asking for. There is no such thing as a "fossil hotspot" (except perhaps the obvious and ironic mass death graves)---there are only places that have been hunted less than others. I have also texted real estate brokers to ask them if they would allow me to look for fossils on their property, and most of them all said the same thing "I sold that property years ago".

[Kane]

1 hour ago, grahamguti said:

@FranzBernhard you still have to present as a threat. @Kane exactly, so you’re left to public access locations—which have been over hunted. That’s why I’m asking if anyone has any spots they aren’t like “selfish” about, ya know? I’d trade my spots all day. It’s about the love of the hunt. 

I am of a similar mindset as @Uncle Siphuncle, as are many of our members. We put in the hard work and time to locate new spots, and nine times out of ten you come away empty-handed; that is part of the hunt. As a corollary to that, we also are reluctant to simply hand over a site we worked hard to obtain, or invite others to dig, and particularly to people we do not know. Just about all of my own sites were the result of spending the time -- research and prospecting -- to locate. I will only share sites with those in my immediate orbit of trust, such as those I have a history of collecting with, and even then some spots are very easily exhausted by even one person visiting over a few times. 

 

To my eye, that is not selfish. It is keeping the site sustainable and viable for a core of dedicated collectors who trust one another. And generally what takes even longer than all the research, map-poring, driving, article-reading, etc., is developing relationships founded on mutual trust with other collectors. Making requests for specific locations is not the best first step to creating and cultivating those human relationships that can be so important in our passion for fossils. The history of fossil collecting is littered with horror stories of new strangers being invited to sites that they proceed to over-collect, or tell other people, and even to the extent of becoming a nuisance in exhausting the goodwill of local property owners (or in defacing an area) only for that site to be closed to everyone for good. On account of that, there is very good reason to be circumspect about locations. 

 

And, no, you're not just left to public access locations. As has been said above, you can try to obtain permission. Not sure why you're contacting real estate brokers. As I said above, and Dan reiterated, the tax records are your first official source of information on who owns the property, as someone is paying the taxes on it. If you know the address, I believe a public library may have a special phonebook with a reverse phone listing by zip code (at least we have something similar up here). Or, you can just knock on the door, send a letter explaining your intent, etc.

[grahamguti]

What is this "over collecting" and when was that labeled as a crime? If you tell someone they can go to your spot, you're saying people should place caps on how much they collect? Is one that insecure of their collecting skills they think someone else can find all the fossils millions of years layed before them?

 

 

I'll tell you what's a horror story, making too many rules to remember for an activity about having fun!

[Kane]

5 minutes ago, grahamguti said:

What is this "over collecting" and when was that labeled as a crime? If you tell someone they can go to your spot, you're saying people should place caps on how much they collect? Is one that insecure of their collecting skills they think someone else can find all the fossils millions of years layed before them?

 

 

I'll tell you what's a horror story, making too many rules to remember for an activity about having fun!

It's more a courtesy and a sign of respect among fossil collectors. It's not a crime, and it really should be fairly simple as a default ethical stance -- no memorization required. And, yes, there have been cases when a commercial operator has exhausted a site quickly, much to the chagrin and disappointment of the person who worked hard to find it and share it with someone they trust to collect some representative samples. 

 

As for fun, many of us realize after several years of collecting that collecting the fossils is secondary to collecting lasting friendships and field camaraderie.

[grahamguti]

Theres your word, exhausted---meaning till he wasn't finding anything worth $...? Perhaps, but finding big $ fossils that is not the point of fossil hunting---it is going out a looking, whether you find any or none, right?

[Kane]

Just now, grahamguti said:

Theres your word, exhausted---meaning till he wasn't finding anything worth $...? Perhaps, but finding big $ fossils that is not the point of fossil hunting---it is going out a looking, whether you find any or none, right?

Not quite in all cases. A site exposure can be so limited that going through all the available material can be a matter of days, leaving nothing but broken bits. 

[Arion]

28 minutes ago, grahamguti said:

If you tell someone they can go to your spot, you're saying people should place caps on how much they collect? Is one that insecure of their collecting skills they think someone else can find all the fossils millions of years layed before them?

No, I don’t think anyone places caps on how much others can collect at “their” sites, but that’s also why people are careful about divulging information about sites in the first place. Unless the site is on property that you own, it isn’t really “your” site technically, so you don’t have any real legitimate ability to set or enforce such rules, but you did put the work in to find that it exists.

 

In my experience it’s also about abundance of fossils at that particular site and rate of exposure of new ones. One site that I visit a couple of times a year does have some decent quality fossils, but because there aren’t a lot of them and the rate of exposure of new stuff isn’t that fast, it really doesn’t have the volume to sustain many collectors going multiple times a year. Because of the nature of the site, surface collecting is not likely to get people upset but the community wouldn’t take kindly to large scale excavation of the bedrock; so if I tried that to increase the yield, I’d probably lose the site altogether. Other sites do have enough fossils that many people can visit them regularly and still find stuff. It has nothing to do with money, it’s just that with fossils you’re limited to what got fossilized.

 

And in a lot of cases I think those who collect do so from a number of smaller locations rather than just hitting one or two big spots all the time. Some sites might not be productive for years, but I’ll keep going back occasionally because every now and then they do give you something impressive.

 

I think people are likely more than willing to help you with your own research, but you do have to do the research yourself in a lot of cases. That’s also part of the fun, and we don’t want to take that away from you . Have you looked at the forum boards for your state and surrounding states? There’s probably some good information about sites there. I’m neither from the area nor do I focus on collecting shark teeth, so I’m not going to be of much help in that regard, but I know there are other forum members who would be in a better position to help you with your research.

[Fossildude19]

2 hours ago, grahamguti said:

I’d trade my spots all day.  It’s about the love of the hunt. 

This type of naivety is what gets sites shut down or over collected, and what makes others not want to divulge their hard earned sites. 

It's not about the love of the hunt for everybody - to think so is reckless at best. People have gotten the idea from TV that fossils are worth money. 

In this economy people want more money. You do the math. 

[grahamguti]

Naivety is lack of experience, not knowledge, keep that in mind. And shut down? Over-collected? Sounds like you are in places where you shouldn't be if they can get shut down. And certainly not a good location if it can be over collected. 

 

But is most certainly about the love of the hunt. It is immature to think it is only worth it if you find something? 

[Kane]

1 minute ago, grahamguti said:

 Sounds like you are in places where you shouldn't be if they can get shut down. And certainly not a good location if it can be over collected. 

 

I'm not sure how you infer this. There are sites people access with permission, and it takes just one bad apple to have it shuttered to all collectors. @Boesse provided a cautionary tale in reply to one of your posts as to how that can happen. @Arion above also supplied an example of what can happen if people start excavating rather than surface collecting, as all it takes a few complaints to the municipality to restrict fossil collecting at a public location. 

 

As for sites that can be over-collected being not good locations, that doesn't hold up logically, either. Again, as @Arion mentioned in his previous post above, some sites need time to replenish. They can be productive for years or even decades if people show respect to that site and to other collectors. Some sites are even so small that it doesn't take long for them to be tapped out, but may contain specimens of scientific significance. 

[grahamguti]

You are right about my statement being illogical, since no site can ever run out of fossils. It would be blasphemous to believe that even in a million years, fossils will still not be at these sites.

[Kane]

3 minutes ago, grahamguti said:

You are right about my statement being illogical, since no site can ever run out of fossils. It would be blasphemous to believe that even in a million years, fossils will still not be at these sites.

That's not universally true. There are some sites that may only have one fossiliferous horizon, and once that is peeled right back, it's gone.

[Fossildude19]

17 minutes ago, grahamguti said:

Naivety is lack of experience, not knowledge, keep that in mind. And shut down? Over-collected? Sounds like you are in places where you shouldn't be if they can get shut down. And certainly not a good location if it can be over collected. 

 

But is most certainly about the love of the hunt. It is immature to think it is only worth it if you find something? 

When one is in the position of asking others for help, it is usually not a good idea to bite the hand that may or may not help you. 

Your zeal to find other peoples sites is becoming off putting. Your arguments against our reasons is not a great way to win friends and influence people. 

Accusing people of being places they shouldn't be, or of unethical collecting without knowing anything about them, or their hunting, is abrasive, and definitely won't win any friends here. 

Perhaps you could find a more accommodating venue to voice your frustration.