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Bean Creek Collecting Area Closed?


RickCalif

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Tonight, I was trying to pull up directions for a friend to the wonderful astrodapsis collection site in scotts valley...seems that this site has been posted with no trespassing signs...as indicated by a few posts i've seen online..if this is indeed true...its a loss of a valuable site...its an area that was collector friendly for kids and beginners...it was a wonderful spot that started many collections..I will miss this spot.

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That would really be too bad if that was true.. I found that site when i was a kid by accident and collected lots of great stuff there. I remember the police even showing up once asking what we were doing. After we showed them fossils they left us alone. They were much more worried we were carving obscene words in the cliff.. Hopefully its not true.. :(

Edited by uncoat
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A land owner there begged me to remove the directions to their from my site. The hill has really gotten bad! The county put up the signs and will soon fence it off. I heard this from here just two days ago

If only my teeth are so prized a million years from now!

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This was such a wonderful area with incredible amounts of Astrodapsis...in wonderful condition to boot...looks like my main sand dollar spot has just shifted to big tar canyon...to lose such a productive site like this saddens me...its a true resource that has opened up many a young persons eyes to a special world.

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My question now...does anyone know of any similar Astrodapsis spatiosis locales near the now closed Bean Creek Location...Something user friendly for a 10 year old...Looking to see where the Santa Margarita Formation outcrops is fun and rewarding to say the least...but for a 10 year old....it can run it's course quite fast! They tend to want to get down and dirty right now. So much in Scott's Valley has changed...I remember when collecting at the quarry sites were so productive...for a lot of different things.....it's been 8 or so years since I collected in that area so I'm clueless on the "established" locations.

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I was fortunate enough to collect there two summers ago whilst on holiday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable site to collect at, and I'm greatly saddened to hear this news. Unfortunately I cannot help you with sites RickCalif, but do you know if there are more than one species of echinoid that occur there, or just Astrodapsis spatiosis?

Thanks for your help,

Joe.

Kind regards,

Joe

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From what i recall...Astrodapsis is the prevalent Echinoid in the area....by a wide margin....I'm just trying to recall a spot to take a 10 year old that's very excited about fossils.....this was a wonderful location for kids....close to parking....easy climb...easy digging...ect., I had a spot that was perfect...you would follow this Santa Cruz mudstone layer that went around a shallow slope...right below when you'd get around the corner....you have the Santa Margarita Sandstone....just a nice flat area to approach...digging would have been great for a kid,,,,and the sand dollars were HUGE...i kid you not....wider than your hand....and this spot has been closed with no trespassing signs all over....

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Hey guys, I can confirm the closure. I was visiting family there last week and tried to take my 12 year old there. Never been there before, so I guess I don't know what I missed but it sounds pretty neat. Can you post a picture of what the Astrodapsis looks like? Maybe some can be found in some of the local creek beds?

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Thanks for posting those Fossils... Now I know what to look for if I ever get back to that area and a different location. I wonder if the san lorenzo river may hold some fossils like those. I can't imagine it wouldn't, as it would catch all of the erosion items over the eons

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I never collected Bean Creek but I used to prospect for those echinoids in the past (early 90's) just giving myself something to do on a free weekend. One spot was really good because no one had ever been there but it replenished itself too slowly. Not much found 3-4 years later.

Maybe three years ago, I checked out an abandoned sand quarry but found only one decent A. spatiosus. It looked like the layer was dug out and eroded away there.

Another place was off a horse trail near Zayante Road but I don't recall the directions exactly. That might be a little too rugged anyway. I remember clambering through some brush but uphill was a spatiosus bed. The specimens were thinner and therefore more brittle.

I would check out this publication for more info.

Clark, J.C. 1981

Stratigraphy, paleontology, and geology of the central Santa Cruz Mountains, California Coast ranges. U.S. Geological Survey Prof. Paper 1168.

Jess

My question now...does anyone know of any similar Astrodapsis spatiosis locales near the now closed Bean Creek Location...Something user friendly for a 10 year old...Looking to see where the Santa Margarita Formation outcrops is fun and rewarding to say the least...but for a 10 year old....it can run it's course quite fast! They tend to want to get down and dirty right now. So much in Scott's Valley has changed...I remember when collecting at the quarry sites were so productive...for a lot of different things.....it's been 8 or so years since I collected in that area so I'm clueless on the "established" locations.

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Joe,

I found numerous complete spatiosus and also some spines of an apparent regular form (cidarid?) but no other genera. I think the environment was too turbulent to preserve the body of the regular form.

Jess

I was fortunate enough to collect there two summers ago whilst on holiday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable site to collect at, and I'm greatly saddened to hear this news. Unfortunately I cannot help you with sites RickCalif, but do you know if there are more than one species of echinoid that occur there, or just Astrodapsis spatiosis?

Thanks for your help,

Joe.

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  • 9 years later...

Since writing my previous post, I've learned that all the sites I've been to are no longer open to collecting.  In some cases the land changed hands or someone put up a fence or gate or some signs.  You'd have to do some prospecting and find your own site these days.

 

There are sites for Astrodapsis in San Luis Obispo County and down into Santa Barbara County (maybe Ventura County too) and some to the north in Contra Costa County, but again, you'd need to do some research and some prospecting to see if some old localities are still open.

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