Why I like the NSR..

[Planko]

Yesterday started like most Saturday's now. Got up, had some coffee, headed to Buc-Ee's and was at the NSR close to sunrise. My plan was to go to an area that I normally cannot get to when the water is up. I don't do the canoeing thing. There was another fossil hunter there that early which is unusual.  I normally see others but it is later in the morning. 

 

I grabbed my back pack and 2 lbs sledge. Then I headed out with the sun still behind them morning clouds. I get to the location, as with most NSR locations, it has been hunted quite a bit lately. I have hunted this same out stretch 4 times prior in the last three weeks. I am not talking about a very large area. Probably half an acre. Doesn't talk long to just walk it but there are bushes now, it has rocks piled up pretty high. You do have to get on yur hand and knees sometimes. Move some decent size rocks. Actually got really lucky and didn't have to bust open 100 rocks to find stuff. Everything was in the open or someone, or the river, had busted them open for me. 

 

Some of my finds from yesterday. Trigonia sp. with calcite  is the largest I have found at 5in x  4in x 3.5in. I also do not normally keep the exogyra ponderosa but this one was rather large and had an attached bottom valve in pretty good shape. Weird brain looking rock. Small clams in calcite. Not sure about the other interesting looking rock. 

 

Here are some pics. 

 

[NSRhunter]

Looks like you headed out east to probably around the 24 bridge! Keep an eye on those concretions, there have been some very nice calcified ammonites found in them. 

[vellis]

I like it too, need to head back out there.  Any idea on how much time we have left out there before they start digging?  Last time I heard, it was still quite a ways out.

[Creek - Don]

Nice haul!  I went out to Goodland formation in SE Tarrant county yesterday and got plenty of haul too. 

[RuMert]

Nice variety, from big oysters to verts

[Planko]

I think it is a couple of years before they start digging. Wonder if there is anyway to let us NSR peeps into the dig out or spoils when they are not working. You know  we will lose a lot of good specimens during this. 

 

Yea, I have found three Trachyscaphites Spiniger covered with calcite. 

 

Nice ammonites Creek - Don. 

[BudB]

Nice finds! If there is usually too much water to wade where you went, then you were likely miles downstream of where the digging will happen. 

[vellis]

@Planko  At one time, I did hear that when they dig out the main channel to widen it, they were going to put the spoils of that past the dam so that they could be dug through.  I cannot remember who told me that, but I do remember thinking that the knew what they were Talking about.  But who knows...

 

 

[ThePhysicist]

"At a meeting with the Dallas Paleo Society last fall, a representative of the Upper Trinity Region Water Development Corp. presented the following timeline. (I do not know if current events have altered that timeline in any way). In December of 2020 or January 2021, construction on the dam will begin. Construction will take about three years. Also, in mid-2021, construction of a new HWY 34 bridge (about fifty feet higher in order to span the eventual lake) will begin. Because of all the work going on, the river will be closed from a point just west of the 904 bridge to another point just west of the current 34 bridge. According to the Water District, the corporation will build a temporary fossil park at the 2990 bridge while all of the construction is happening. About three years from the start of construction (so early 2024), the district will allow everything west of the dam to begin the process of filling to a lake. The fill could take from one year to six years, depending on weather. As the new lake is filling, the water district has said that it will build a new and permanent fossil park at the 904 bridge." 

[Creek - Don]

Here is what dam would look like after filled up. 

 

Here is the current Google map. 

[Planko]

Wow, I thought it was further away. Going to lose a lot of good hunting ground.

So little time. Need to go buy lottery tickets. Two days a week is not enough.  

[Monica]

I love that oyster - it looks to be a giant! 

[JarrodB]

Nice finds. 

[Creek - Don]

I may be heading out to NSR this weekend if it gets plenty of rain from Hurricane Laura.  Supposed to receive 1 to 3 inches of rain.  Usually that means lots of erosion and bones if lucky. 

[Planko]

I will be there again this weekend. Would be nice to get some rain to freshen things up a bit. 

[BobWill]

That is a huge trigonia! The rock with the flanges is a septarian concretion. I always pick up the exogyra when they have the right valve too. It is so much thinner than the left valve I can see why they don't preserve well. BTW even though we usually find them left-valve-up because of the flatter side, in life that would be the bottom valve since that has the attachment point, so the smaller valve would be on top. Nice haul.

[Planko]

8 hours ago, BobWill said:

That is a huge trigonia! The rock with the flanges is a septarian concretion. I always pick up the exogyra when they have the right valve too. It is so much thinner than the left valve I can see why they don't preserve well. BTW even though we usually find them left-valve-up because of the flatter side, in life that would be the bottom valve since that has the attachment point, so the smaller valve would be on top. Nice haul.

 

So up is down and down is up. Got it.  That would explain why most of them still in the matrix are the "correct" way. I thought they always rolled over to die. LOL