Coastal South Carolina

[Mignoffo]

Hello all.

 

I was wondering if anyone on here is from (or very familiar with) coastal plain South Carolina. I am not fishing for spots at all, in fact I have a vacation rental on a nice piece of land west of Summerville that I picked and paid for in hopes that we would have fossiling accessible from our home base. We have river access and the land is ripe with creeks. I would like to network with someone knowledgeable about the area to find out if where we are staying might be fossiliferous. This is mostly my teenage son's hobby, but we will definitely hunt as a family. We did hunt creeks in Florida a couple years ago and had a great time so we are at least somewhat familiar with the methods. What it comes down to is I don't want to schedule an excursion and pay a guide in South Carolina if an expert can tell us that we probably can find fossils right under our nose where we are staying.

[Thomas.Dodson]

The area is very fossiliferous. I'm not an expert or a local but I've made trips to the area a few times because of the rich fossils. Random creeks and rivers are definitely worth looking at in the area if you have access. Don't forget to pick up your license http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/sciaa/mrd/hobbydiverlicense

I think a lot of people aren't aware of this fact (I initially wasn't) but it is important. Note that despite the diving heavy terminology it's needed for any public waterways of the state. There are other regulations to look at, including area specific regulations, but in you're just doing surface finds you don't need to worry about those. Otherwise make sure to check ahead of time.

 

This site has a good general overview of sites, ages and formations, identifications, etc. https://www.fossilguy.com/sites/coastal-south-carolina/index.htm

There are of course many more. Sawmill Branch in Summerville is a place frequented by many people and despite the heavy use has always yielded high quality finds for me, including big Otodus angustidens teeth. I pulled a ~3 incher slant one right at the entrance to the creek at the shopping center entrance. People were already there that day and had walked right over it. Even if you have other creek and river access lined up you may want to check it out.

 

In short you shouldn't have any trouble and you don't need much knowledge about the area to get into the fossils. Best of luck.

 

 

[Mignoffo]

Thank you so much for the reply. I am going to send you a PM just because I don't want to publish our exact locale publicly.

[Mignoffo]

On 1/18/2021 at 1:18 PM, Thomas.Dodson said:

The area is very fossiliferous. I'm not an expert or a local but I've made trips to the area a few times because of the rich fossils. Random creeks and rivers are definitely worth looking at in the area if you have access. Don't forget to pick up your license http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/sciaa/mrd/hobbydiverlicense

I think a lot of people aren't aware of this fact (I initially wasn't) but it is important. Note that despite the diving heavy terminology it's needed for any public waterways of the state. There are other regulations to look at, including area specific regulations, but in you're just doing surface finds you don't need to worry about those. Otherwise make sure to check ahead of time.

 

This site has a good general overview of sites, ages and formations, identifications, etc. https://www.fossilguy.com/sites/coastal-south-carolina/index.htm

There are of course many more. Sawmill Branch in Summerville is a place frequented by many people and despite the heavy use has always yielded high quality finds for me, including big Otodus angustidens teeth. I pulled a ~3 incher slant one right at the entrance to the creek at the shopping center entrance. People were already there that day and had walked right over it. Even if you have other creek and river access lined up you may want to check it out.

 

In short you shouldn't have any trouble and you don't need much knowledge about the area to get into the fossils. Best of luck.

 

Thanks for the reply. I should have done this sooner, but I'll show off some of the better finds from the creeks. We found gobs of small stuff but I'd say these are the best of the bunch. I think we did well for a first trip and not knowing the area at all. The larger creeks including Sawmill were way too high. Probably half of our fossils came from a ditch that we tried just for the heck of it behind a little crappy doctor's office! and at that, the creek was seemingly not great but we found a single spot with gravel and in that tiny deposit were several amazing teeth and the whale vert just sitting there.

 

[r00t2400]

Not sure if you ever got your situation squared away but I’m a local and would be happy to help you figure out what’s going on around your place. Send me a direct message.