Point A Dam, Ala and Northern Panhandle Sites in Florida Still Around?

[NickG]

I have an upcoming trip around the Point A Dam in Alabama. Is this site still in good shape with the recent weather that's been cranking through the south? If the dam is out, are there any other good sites still in existence in 1-3 hours drive south of Andalusia? I've read about a lot of northern panhandle sites in Florida but wondered if they're still in existence or have been wrecked with Hurricane Michael.

 

Also, I work mostly dry sites in the Paleozoic of West Virginia. Is this a site where muck boots are warranted? If so, are mid calf height enough or better to have waders that go over the knee? I'm wondering the same thing at some of the Northern Panhandle of Florida sites which apparently are mostly stream and creek beds? One friend mentioned old shoes and wool knee highs being enough. Would love to hear opinions of others. 

Edited April 3, 2021 by Nick G.

[aplomado]

The water is really high at point A dam right now; you can check it here:

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/al/nwis/uv/?site_no=02372430&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

 

It is my understanding that the best times to go are when it is 2-3 feet deep.

It can change very rapidly, as the area is below a dam (obviously).

[NickG]

On 4/3/2021 at 1:48 PM, aplomado said:

The water is really high at point A dam right now; you can check it here:

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/al/nwis/uv/?site_no=02372430&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

 

It is my understanding that the best times to go are when it is 2-3 feet deep.

It can change very rapidly, as the area is below a dam (obviously).

We had a good time there, but poor luck collecting. We only scored around 11 teeth and one nice scallop (this is what I kept). The dam alarm went off, so we had to leave.

 

As an update to help others, up through and around Tuscaloosa, most of the back roads expose the Prairie Chalk, so as you drive toward Livingston, you have a good chance of finding nice invertebrate fossils if you're willing to stop and gamble on each cut.

 

The Demopolis Chalk has ample exposures along a rail line in this area, I wish I knew more precisely where I was, but I was a passenger, not a driver. There were many nice examples of yellow calcite exposures, including slickenslide, even a few that were more translucent.  It is not especially fossiliferous but I found some excellent black iron nodules, very smooth and pretty in their own right, as well as at least one ostreid, probably Exo ponderosa. Be careful where you go, we went to a large exposed, inactive quarry which had no signs up to mark it as private property or no trespassing and were stopped by a natural resources officer, but I think he was just curious to be sure we weren't illegally fishing or hunting.

 

On my way home, I ended up crossing over to the Georgia line and hunted the Cambrian in roadcuts N of Livingston. There is one that's about 6-7' high, but before it if you're coming from the N side along GA 100, you'll find lots of trilobite bits and butts as well as agnostids. These are very small, so you need to be patient and look keenly as you walk. I don't advise stopping and searching every rock, rather keep going til you find something and then focusing on that spot. I found if I kept carefully splitting with a small butter knife, I could easily separate the very clayey-shales and find more material. I had originally wanted to stop at Weiss Lake in Alabama, but the water level was too high everywhere along the way to the GA state line.

 

In NW Georgia, I collected a lot of bulk for micro sampling, so hopefully I will share with you all my findings. I will say this, the areas that are listed in the 1940s and 1950s state reports are still all viable. You just have to be willing to search and climb. 

 

As I get things unpacked and things slow down at work (never shocks me I come back to a fire!), I'll post pictures from the trip. Hope you all like Exos.