Eagle Ford - Ozan Trips

[wfrr]

This coming week I have a few irons in the fire that I am excited about. Saturday I have a new eagle ford site that I recently stumbled on to. It looks a lot different than what I've been looking at in the upper areas. Very creme colored hard clay with red nodules. I'm only guessing I'm near the lower britton. Funny though, I don't think it should be where I'm finding it. Only had a short time to look but I found some decent sized shark teeth, a fish vert and a reptile bone frag. Man it was some kind of fun too! I have some time Saturday to look this place over a bit better. I expect a good hunt there.

Monday I have an invite to tag along to the North Sulphur River. Another hot hard 10 hour day of slogging in the muddy channel. We tend to cover 5 or 6 miles, of course not counting all of the zig zagging back and forth. What can I say? This place never lets me down. Its a very long wide channel thats had a good rain this week. Lots of places to go and plenty of things to find. You simply need to be lucky or you just need to be willing to hunt harder and walk far farther than the last guy. Wish I were there right now.

I hear people think there might be BIGFOOT in the North Sulphur River. I've not seen any evidence of that. I'm a lot more worried about finding myself following a single set of small shoe prints in the river. They belong to someone small, perhaps a woman. They walk alone and they cover some ground. When you find yourself following them, they go everywhere you think you want to look. I've invariably followed these little prints zig zagging along many stretches of the river. They do one hell of a job picking things up. Iv'e only managed to find a few things following those little foot prints and that's been tough! They don't miss much. So my hat's off to you. If I do see BIGFOOT prints in the river I won't worry too much about him, but if I see your little footprints in the channel I'm getting the hell out of there.

Tuesday I am meeting some folks that happen to be the owners of a section of creek in the Eagle Ford that is fenced, posted and not open to the public. I've been invited to the property by them for another reason. I'm sure going to try and get access to hunt if it's appropriate to bring it up. I've found quite a few things through the years right up to their property line. Who knows what might be there?

I will try to post some pics next week.

[jeremy.greene]

Interested!

[Foshunter]

Even if there are footprints, if you look hard enough something will be found. I have a favorite spot on the river. One day after a rain and river rise just knew the hunting would be good. Raced to the dirt road and down a ramp and laying in front of me were endless foot prints, not just a few but hundreds, I guess an entire football team. My heart sank but I didn't give up, did find some teeth and a Mos. vert that was buried out of the you-surpers sigth. Funny how in our mind that we, for one reason or the other lay, claim to a prime hunting area. With great reluctance I finally admitted to myself that this was a waste of time and a long walk back to the truck. I hoped that all those bigfooted people scored some great finds, not really. As I started up the ramp and the long walk of defeat, there it lay-------fully exposed, not 2 inches from one of the claim jumpers shoe prints----a 3 1/2 inch Woodford chert side knotched knife. Not to say----In Your Face-----but there was a inner satisfaction as I drove home. THere is always something there just have to look a little harder-----good hunting wfrr----Tom

[barefootgirl]

I will be out and about on Monday in the sulphur......again. Maybe I will see ya around!

[jeremy.greene]

Wow! That is one thing ive never found...

[wfrr]

Yes indeed, the last trip out we followed two sets of footprints. We still found a fair amount of stuff, then the other tracks ran out and bingo!!

Maybe we will see you out there. If you see a bunch of old guys...its us.

[wfrr]

Well dang it, went out yesterday and looked at the mudbog that once was my new EAGLE FORD honey hole. The first time I went there we'd had rains about 4 days before and it was pretty much dry. There were a few wet spots and my buddy and I unexpectedly sunk to the top of our boots immediately. My walking stick buried half of its length while getting out of the muck. Serious bottomless mud. So I imagine I'd have been in to my waiste or even deeper if I'd have tried it yesterday, heck I might still be there. So strike one off my list. Maybe Monday will still be good for the NSR.

[barefootgirl]

So how was your trip today? Hope you did better than yesterday.

[wfrr]

Well barefoot girl I've got to tell you it was pretty cool. Going in we walked up on a big sow and few other hogs close enough to her to feel it when she grunted. They moved one way and we went the other. We went up the river one direction found nada but footprints, then we slogged up a trib past all of the footprints and was still not finding much. We backtracked a couple of miles and then headed the other way up the river. After about 15 minutes there it was...my buddy trentonmnon found a pile of disarticulated mosasaur debris some of it still in situ in the shale.

We carefully began excavation. There was massive fragmentation and deterioration. Now after finding this bone pile I understand how a lot of the verts we find are without any of the processes on them. Not always from being tumbled. Most of these came out with the processes missing or crumbled to minerals. There were a number of verts deteriorated to knobs in the shale. Even with that I saw 16 verts and 5 or 6 knobs so far. There are a few in pretty good shape and it is hoped that amongst the debris we can assemble a few complete verts. There are some jaw bones encased in some shale and limestone and some teeth...mostly broken. There were few limb or pelvic parts but we might have a bit of skull frags. There are some globs of debris that need work before we can identify what is there. You can't get some of it wet it will just dissolves into dirt, so some of the parts will get hardener on them before we handle them any further. We have some stuff we found in about the same area last year that we will have compare together at some point.

It's going to take a long time to process this stuff, but it sounds fun to me.

Luckily we both had back packs. We wrapped it up packed it and carried it all out. It was heavy. Other than that we already had found a number of nice bone frags, verts etc. Before we added more weight it had already been a long grueling difficult walk. We both are really feeling it today.

Ill point out that some one pretty much ran over this pile with a 4 wheeler. Everywhere we went there were 4 wheeler tracks and foot prints. Yes I even saw the little foot prints. Sometimes I think how cool it would be to ride to a spot and hunt instead of endlessly trudging ahead, but then we'd be running over stuff too right?

We know that a find in this condition isn't really much of anything, but so what, it's pretty cool to us and besides it'll give us a little more experience at salvaging and restoring material. So win win. Besides there might be more of it near there for us to go look for. We intend to find out about that.

Better pics later this week I hope.

How was your hunt I hope it was an adventure.

Edited June 4, 2013 by wfrr

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Wonderful find. I'd love to make a similar discovery.

[barefootgirl]

Well I think that is a great find! Congratulations and it just goes to show that just because someone has been there before you doesn't mean you can't find something. I know how you feel about the four wheelers. I've found so many cool things right in there tracks and sometimes I think they are just down there joy riding and not really looking for fossils.

I unfortunately did not get to get out like I wanted to. I had other obligations come up. I am hoping to get out some this week though and it looks like more rain is coming at the end of the week so maybe I can get a few good days of hunting in.

[Foshunter]

It's a great day when Mos. is found, looks like some prep and glue is on the way. Thanks for sharing and watch those wild hogs, they can get very nasty----Tom

[JohnJ]

It's a really "cool" find. It also looks like you might have an ulna in the image below. Dale Russell's work would be useful in your prep and IDs.

[wfrr]

Thanks JohnJ. I sent that PDF to trentonmon. The ulna is in very nice condition. Good eye to spot that in a fuzzy picture. We had just made it to trenton-mons house. We were pretty much played out. We just unloaded everything and spread it out on a pool table and I took a few pics with my phone. I'm hoping he will put up some decent pictures.

Edited June 4, 2013 by wfrr

[wfrr]

Here is a pic of the rather modest finds by myself on Monday at the NSR. The baculite was so big I had to pick it up. I must have passed on a jillion of them. The big bone frag has nice predation scratches on it. I wish I knew what it is. A few verts, a petrified mammal tooth portion, most of the rest are bone frags. Not one of my better outings but still okay. Trentonmon on the other hand had a very good collection going before he found the bonepile. So an awesome day for him

I still have not hunted either of the eagle ford sites I mentioned early in the post. I am going to try to hit one of them tomorrow. The other.. I was on the property Tuesday. I wasn't there to hunt fossils so I didn't get ck it out. For the future I got a standing invitation with gate and house access. I don't know what is there but I suspect it will be lower britton. The owner says a lot of artifacts have been found there by her family. SWEET!!

Edited May 31, 2013 by wfrr

[Roz]

Some very nice finds and the access is wonderful!

[barefootgirl]

Well good luck. I found a decent pet wood point down at the sulphur today.

Here is a pic of the rather modest finds by myself on Monday at the NSR. The baculite was so big I had to pick it up. I must have passed on a jillion of them. The big bone frag has nice predation scratches on it. I wish I knew what it is. A few verts, a petrified mammal tooth portion, most of the rest are bone frags. Not one of my better outings but still okay. Trentonmon on the other hand had a very good collection going before he found the bonepile. So an awesome day for him

memday 2013.jpg

I still have not hunted either of the eagle ford sites I mentioned early in the post. I am going to try to hit one of them tomorrow. The other.. I was on the property Tuesday. I wasn't there to hunt fossils so I didn't get ck it out. For the future I got a standing invitation with gate and house access. I don't know what is there but I suspect it will be lower britton. The owner says a lot of artifacts have been found there by her family. SWEET!!

[wfrr]

great..so you got down there! love to see a pic of that point. Hope it was an adventure

[barefootgirl]

It got hot today once the clouds went away. I saw those foot prints you were talking about. Looks like a kids size. I hit the 2675 bridge and headed east. The only things worth finding were a trachyscaphite that I found under the bridge and a sawfish rostrum and the point. I posted them on The fossil forum on facebook. I take all my picts with my phone now and it's just easier to send them straight to facebook.

[wfrr]

Ill ck them out

[wfrr]

Well I got back in the NSR Saturday to help my old bud trenton-mon excavate the area around the mosasaur he found while we were there Monday. Read more about that on his mosasaur post. Whilst I was there I had to do a little looking...right?

Managed a few redbed items and a red tinted oyster. There are a number of mosasaur parts including the big bone. Not sure if that is limb or rib. There is a highly mineralized equus lower molar and a blueish colored tooth that looks old but I guess its bossy. Overall nothing spectacular but still pretty cool for a short hunt. Sorry for the crappy pics.

I made it to my recent discovery eagle ford honey hole today. It was a mud bog in places. Still managed 50 fish and shark teeth picked up off the ground. I found a few fish verts, one of them looks like it was taken out of a can of salmon and layed on the ground just before I got there. At one point I sat down in a hot spot and picked up over 30 teeth without getting up. Lots of Tychodus.

My buddy had a decent hunt including a reptile tooth. I thought mosasaur but I figure we are in the lower britton. It may be a plesiosaur. I wish I had it here to look at or a pic to research with. I also pulled a plesiosaur vert out of there. It's only the second one I've ever found. So this honey hole was still sweet...at least the parts that were not in a mud bog or under water.

I need a much better camera for pics of of my eagle ford finds. Some of it is very tiny. I'm going to try and get something done about that this week and post some pics. I have some toothies that I don't know the ID on and I know some of you really have that part down. Over and out.

Edited June 4, 2013 by wfrr

[barefootgirl]

Good finds! I went back out to the sulphur today and found another point, I think it's a San Patrice also found a nice vert and of course lots of bone pieces.

[wfrr]

I did not find any points this week at all, but theres always next week. I'm thinking Montague and Wise county 330 million yo stuff and fairly often ...points.

[wfrr]

Wow barefootgirl nice point. My Mom grew up in Klondike, Delta County a lot of points were found on the old farm there. They are going to put a hwy through it so I'd best get out there and give it a once over. While the hwy goes in I may just stay at the farm and see what they unearth. Out thataway has been good.

[barefootgirl]

Well good luck and post picts!