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Site Prospecting 102 - Closing The Deal


Uncle Siphuncle

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Thank you for this post. It has been very informative and given me hope I may gain access to the quarries in my area.

Luck is the most important skill of a fossil diver.

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  • 2 years later...

So I have a question that you may have an answer to: In my area much of the land is industrial farmland with intervening woods. In many cases it is not clear who owns what property, so is it ever appropriate to go door to door for information? I feel like it would be off-putting, but when you don't know the individuals in the area you are looking at it seems like this is the only viable option.

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I've gotten permission to collect large swaths of earth both by knocking on doors as well as getting landowner name and address from the county tax office, then calling them.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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I've gotten permission to collect large swaths of earth both by knocking on doors as well as getting landowner name and address from the county tax office, then calling them.

In a very broad sense, how receptive are they in response to both calling and knocking on doors? I've only done this twice, the first people were very skiddish; the other land owner I caught while he was on his pond and he was very receptive. Just curious if either one of these responses is particularly common or uncommon.

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As I found out early in life as a young man, one must get past his own fears of rejection and simply initiate the conversation, with the successes and failures to come helping you to fine tune your approach. In short, you learn to read people and adapt your approach to the situation.

It doesn't hurt to show up with surplus goodwill fossils from far away as I don't like to engage in unilaterally beneficial dealings. I try to be a well rounded outdoorsman, and this sometimes helps engage rural landowners with talk of fishing, hog hunting, etc. Find common ground to help break the ice. Be courteous. Feel out whether the person wants to talk a while vs get straight to the point.

Some people may respond favorably to military experience or affiliation, museum affiliation, involvement in published works, etc (or perhaps not - varies by situation). Dealing with quarries is different than dealing with private landowners.

In a way, I suppose it's like sales. Although I'm more an introverted, myopic turned presbyopic engineering type, through experience I've become quite comfortable entering these conversations with about 50% success, from small parcels to tens or hundreds of thousands of acres at a time. If I can do it, most others can probably do it easier and more naturally, with requisite experience.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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In a very broad sense, how receptive are they in response to both calling and knocking on doors? I've only done this twice, the first people were very skiddish; the other land owner I caught while he was on his pond and he was very receptive. Just curious if either one of these responses is particularly common or uncommon.

I would say you are batting about average... some folks are receptive, some are not. As Dan said, you gotta get over the fear. It is a lot like asking a girl out on a date... at least from my point of view. Fear of rejection is pretty powerful, but you gotta beat it. : )

Good luck.

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  • 2 years later...

We have no quarries nearby, but I've heard that borrow pits are also a good place to find fossils. Do you have any tips on how to locate borrow pits in a certain area? 

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Research the area using online satellite imagery.  It often shows things you may not have realized were in the area.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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  • 5 months later...

With nearly 3 million people living in Chicago and the Mazon Creek fossil area an hour away, the public sites on state land are picked clean by the end of the first week of March. Season begins March 1st and runs thru September 30th. Any private property you can collect is like being in heaven by comparison. Knocking on doors, ringing doorbells and talking to people in the nearest town is how you get to collect those. Nine out of ten may say no, but one of them will say yes. Repeat 9 times and you have 10 locations that are yours alone. I even had one guy I met at a McD in town where I stopped for breakfast and to ask directions, tell me not to go to the location I was trying to find (Mazonia) because the fossil hunting on his property was a lot better, and then told me to follow him home. Bragging rights on his part, I guess. "My fossils are better than theirs!" kind of mindset. He was right. Gold mine, and high percentage (almost 90%) yield. Vast majority of the concretions produced fossils, and in very good preservation condition. By the end of the day I had almost four 5-gallon buckets full of concretions, ranging from the size of a grape up to the size of a shoe. The only thing I did was to be overheard as I was asking directions of the person behind the counter. 

 

So, my point -- finally, you might say! Don't be bashful about it. Let everyone in town know that you are there to collect fossils. People do want to help others, especially those who appear to be lost. And when you knock on doors and the landowner says no, say thank you and politely ask if they know anyone you could ask. Believe me, it works, and private property is so much more productive than public land that thousands of fossil hunters have already searched.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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4 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

With nearly 3 million people living in Chicago and the Mazon Creek fossil area an hour away, the public sites on state land are picked clean by the end of the first week of March. Season begins March 1st and runs thru September 30th. Any private property you can collect is like being in heaven by comparison. Knocking on doors, ringing doorbells and talking to people in the nearest town is how you get to collect those. Nine out of ten may say no, but one of them will say yes. Repeat 9 times and you have 10 locations that are yours alone. I even had one guy I met at a McD in town where I stopped for breakfast and to ask directions, tell me not to go to the location I was trying to find (Mazonia) because the fossil hunting on his property was a lot better, and then told me to follow him home. Bragging rights on his part, I guess. "My fossils are better than theirs!" kind of mindset. He was right. Gold mine, and high percentage (almost 90%) yield. Vast majority of the concretions produced fossils, and in very good preservation condition. By the end of the day I had almost four 5-gallon buckets full of concretions, ranging from the size of a grape up to the size of a shoe. The only thing I did was to be overheard as I was asking directions of the person behind the counter. 

 

So, my point -- finally, you might say! Don't be bashful about it. Let everyone in town know that you are there to collect fossils. People do want to help others, especially those who appear to be lost. And when you knock on doors and the landowner says no, say thank you and politely ask if they know anyone you could ask. Believe me, it works, and private property is so much more productive than public land that thousands of fossil hunters have already searched.

Agreed.  A productive future involves a lot of personal legwork and investment to secure private land access.  Shielding that info from public view shows most respect to the landowner, while bumping up your odds of many happy residuals.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Hard to believe this thread has had legs for 11 years at this point.  I started it because there was a disproportionate number of collectors simply asking for site info, apparently never introduced to the joy of hard work and commensurate rewards involved in blazing one's own trail, those rewards most consistently accrued to those who commit and stay the course. 

 

As experience builds, the urge to ask other collectors for their sites diminishes for a few reasons.  For one, with experience comes the realization that the other guy probably worked hard for his sites, which generally have finite potential, and with that awareness, it can be embarrassing to ask for the other guy's "silver and gold."  This is a form of respect borne of experience.  Second, blazing your own trail will give you enough sites to keep you busy without outside help.  Finally, it is simply more satisfying to hunt a good site you found on your own.  

 

Making a good find at a buddy's site is fun in its own way, but for me, a bit of a hollow victory.  I prefer the full experience of careful site management that can eventually lead to a good find, with acumen building along the way.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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On 4/8/2019 at 9:04 PM, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Hard to believe this thread has had legs for 11 years at this point.  I started it because there was a disproportionate number of collectors simply asking for site info, apparently never introduced to the joy of hard work and commensurate rewards involved in blazing one's own trail, those rewards most consistently accrued to those who commit and stay the course. 

 

As experience builds, the urge to ask other collectors for their sites diminishes for a few reasons.  For one, with experience comes the realization that the other guy probably worked hard for his sites, which generally have finite potential, and with that awareness, it can be embarrassing to ask for the other guy's "silver and gold."  This is a form of respect borne of experience.  Second, blazing your own trail will give you enough sites to keep you busy without outside help.  Finally, it is simply more satisfying to hunt a good site you found on your own.  

 

Making a good find at a buddy's site is fun in its own way, but for me, a bit of a hollow victory.  I prefer the full experience of careful site management that can eventually lead to a good find, with acumen building along the way.

And it should last another 11 years, and then repeat, then repeat and last forever. Too many folks want it handed to them, and that's fine, as long as they understand that they're getting the worst of the discard pile. If they're happy having only that, it's fine with me. I strive for greater things.

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Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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7 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

And it should last another 11 years, and then repeat, then repeat and last forever. Too many folks want it handed to them, and that's fine, as long as they understand that they're getting the worst of the discard pile. If they're happy having only that, it's fine with me. I strive for greater things.

Tis true, no none gives away their first fruits, nor should they feel compelled to.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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