Went To An Alabama Creek

[Rockin' Ric]

Hey y'all! I got an opportunity to hunt marine fossils on an creek in South Alabama last week and it didn't disappoint! The first hour I found squat other than a rusty horseshoe. That is until I moved to a rocky and gravel/sand area with a strong current...I moved the big stones aside that littered the bottom and started to skim the top layer of gravel with the shovel as the current splashed against me.

 

 

My intent was to find Cretaceous Period Shark, Fish teeth, Coprolites and other marine fossils.

 

 

 

 

Scapanorynchus, Squalicorax, Cretalamna, Enchodus and Fish Coprolites

 

 

Well, was I pleasantly surprised. After two shovelful of materials I found my first arrowhead of the day! Next scoop another and another...next scoop yield two in the sifter and then the find of the day...a Paleo point Dalton! In all my 30 years of hunting Archaic Period

points never found this many in one place! Also found two broken points, preforms, broken pottery shards as well as a lot of flakes!

 

 

 

The pottery shards were everywhere, in the water...on gravel bars! These were the ones I found.

 

 

My guess is that this particular area was a pocket that captured tons of sand/gravel along with the points over many moons...

that pocket seemed to have an endless supply of material as I dug deeper finally hitting a layer that contained quiet a few teeth...

there's those teefers, consisting of . Now that was a haul, I bet that horseshoe had something to do with the luck?

 

 

There was an abundance of fresh water mussels everywhere, alive and dead. I found several large halves of Washboard Mussels

where the interior of the shells had a magnificent mother of pearl iridescence! When held in the sunlight it glows with a rainbow of colors. This photo doesn't do it justice. I can see why the Native Americans put them to every day use in this part of the country.

 

Alabama weather can be unpredictable. When we arrived at the site it was partly sunny with clouds, a perfect day to be on the creek... several hours later we hear thunder in the distance and a dark ominous cloud is on top of us before we know it cutting short the field trip...I was on a roll! We made it to our vehicles in time before the bottom falls out.

With so much rain we dare not go back to the creek for fear of flash flooding, so we ended the day earlier than we wanted. I look forward to going back soon.

[old bones]

What a haul! Fossils and artifacts! It doesn't get better than that.

[JohnJ]

What a great adventure!

[digit]

There's a day well spend--with the loot to show for it!

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[bthemoose]

You definitely found a great spot!

[KJW]

I am up and Madison County in a new to fossil hunting and don't have a clue where to go in Alabama. I've only done this up in New Jersey. Could you possibly tell me what creek and or area you went to?

[JohnJ]

2 hours ago, KJW said:

I am up and Madison County in a new to fossil hunting and don't have a clue where to go in Alabama. I've only done this up in New Jersey. Could you possibly tell me what creek and or area you went to?

 

It is unlikely that any wise collector would name a productive site on a public forum.  Unless, of course, the site is a well known, public hunting area.  Doing so jeopardizes long term access to such sites and exposes them to the least common denominator surfing online.

 

Being new, it is something you may not have considered.  You might have better success if you get a geologic map and target some formations that are described as producing marine teeth.  That, in addition to a polite private message (PM) could garner the info you hope to be given.