Montana 2014, Part 1

[John K]

My two kids and I got back on Wednesday from our semi-annual trip to East-Central Montana to visit good friends and do some serious fossil hunting. This year we were to help our friend The Troll recover the rest of a 40 foot Plesiosaur he had found 3 years ago on a ranch that a friend of his owns.

So we drove the 13 hours it takes to get to Melstone and met our friend and his cousin there. From Melstone, we headed north to the Tear Drop Ranch, guests of owner s Bob and Franics (Last name forgotten...)

We drove up to a commanding overlook of the ENTIRE area (seriously, we could see for 70 miles...) and set up our home for the next couple days.

We spent the next couple of days exploring the exposures of shale around the shoulders of the surrounding bluffs. These were all exposures of Bear Paw shale, and were full of ammonites, bivalves and a few rare vertebrate bones.

We found a bunch of large Placenticerous ammonites, mostly preserved in large concretions and in poor condition. We mostly left these lie where we found them. This one is about the size of a truck tire - you can see it's white Mother of Pearl surface coating, just below the dark brown concretion:

.

Here's another big one that's starting to become a septarian nodule. The white is all original Mother of Pearl:

We kept a couple fragmentary specimens that had some terrific colors:

We found some large Inoceramus bivalves:

my son had fun when he discovered the largest Bacculites he'd ever found:

One of the hilltops was covered in a grey Cochina, full of bacculites, bivalves, gastropods and ammonites:

At the very bottom of the hill we were camped on, we found a Placenticerous that seemed to be pretty intact

We wrapped it up as best we could:

and hauled it up the hill to camp. It weighed around 35 lbs.

the next morning we packed up and headed out for our next stop: the Fox Hill Sandstones

[Raggedy Man]

What a fantastic adventure!

[John K]

Part 2

Our next stop was Sumatra, Montana. Actually, it was the post office in Sumatra, Montana, because that is all there is in Sumatra - a post office. The Troll was going to give the owners a call to tell them we were moving camp, but instead we ran into Francis there as she was picking up their mail. She escorted us out to where we were going to make sure we knew the way. We drove as far as I could go in my car, then hopped in the Trolls truck for the long, bumpy, dusty ride up into the Fox Hills.

Other than this small bone chip that my daughter found, we didn't find much. Not sure if there's enough there to be diagnostic or not - it looks like it's from an ankle/foot. It's definitely petrified:

Wer did stumble on this guy - Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! Best to leave sleeping porkies lie....

from there we headed in to Forsythe, for groceries, water and to visit good friends just a little ways more in Rosebud. But not without a stop first on a Hell Creek exposure, right next to the road!

The kids found a bunch of turtle bones and gar scales where the Hell Creek was being exposed out form under the rip-rap the county had laid down as an erosion control measure. We had previously found turtle, crocodile and dinosaur material here.

As I mentioned, from there we went into Forsythe, got groceries, and went on the Rosebud for a needed break from several days of camping in the open range: cold beer, hot food, indoor plumbing and good times with dear friends.

[John K]

Part 3

We sent the next morning looking for agates, petrified wood and the possibility of mammal material on the Yellowstone river.

The river had recently came down, so picking was easy

all told, I myslef came out of there with @ 45 lbs of agates and high quality pet wood

We headed east from Rosebud, with our destination to be Glendive. We made a stop a few miles out of Miles City to investigate a spot on the Yellowstone where The Troll had previously found some nice plant material. Since this is a weak spot in my collection, I was very interested. Since this is so close to the Highway, many will recognize the part of the river.

My buddy The Troll and his cousin:

We were not disappointed. I accidentally cracked this one into pieces trying to extract it, but we found a couple more nice ones, along with some nice agates and pet wood along the river.

Thunderstorms around Glendive cut our trip short the next morning, but we were starting to get sick of being on the road, anyway. And we certainly did not want to be where we were planning on going when it was raining heavily, even with 4X4.

So we headed home. It was nice - I got caught up with Dr. Who

[TyrannosaurusRex]

Amazing thanks for sharing!!!

[John K]

Back home, we've been cleaning, packing away camping stuff, and admiring our finds.

These are the bone fragments my son and I found at our first camp. We found about a dozen pieces, all around 1" or so. I'm thinking plesiosaur or mosasaur, but it's anybodies guess, really:

this is a nice piece of partial Placenticerous ammonite my daughter collected:

each of my kids got a huge piece of petrified wood from our friend in Rosebud:

... who introduced me to a nice local beer. How cool is that?

[John K]

footnote:
I almost forgot: we never did find the rest of my friends Plesiosaur. We found the spot, as best my map/gps challenged friend could remember, but there was nothing there. Three years, as it turns out, is enough time for a lot of erosion to happen. There were no sign of any previous excavation (the bone fragments we had found where from another hill), survey stakes, or anything. So instead of the full spinal column, articulated ribs and possible skull that he had found, all he's got is about a dozen large vertebrates and one of the paddles from the animal. A hard lesson learned!

[Auspex]

Great adventure! Thanks for the recap

Is that vivianite on your son's bone-bits?

[fossilized6s]

Sounds and looks like an awesome trip John! Feel free to take me with you next time...

Red Lodge is a very nice town.

.....and yeah, i would say that's a VERY tough lesson learned....ugh.

Congrats on the cool finds!

[John K]

Great adventure! Thanks for the recap

Is that vivianite on your son's bone-bits?

I learned a long time ago that the bluish cast on the bone material in the Pierre Shale is from phosphates, so this is a good possibility.

Thanks, guys. It's always an interesting trip!

[jpc]

Nice trip report from a cool area. (The nitpicker in me has to correct your spelling. Placenticeras ends in 'as', not 'ous'.)

[Tethys]

Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all. Nice job on the photo essay, I m now just a little bit homesick for the range and riding around in the back of an old pickup truck.

[grampa dino]

Great report and photos thanks for the post

Montana is my very very second place to collect

[Shamalama]

Very nice trip report. Thanks for posting!

[RyanNREMTP]

I miss Montana. I have relatives in Miles City if memory serves me right. I would love to go up there for some fossil hunting.

Glad you got caught up on Dr Who, get ready for tonight!

[Dinictis]

Wonderful fossil hunting trip! I hope to get a chance to look for fossils in Montana in the next few years. And ouch, not a fun lesson learned with the plesiosaur at all! Better luck to your pal next time.

Beautiful pictures though. Nothing like fossil hunting with a great view!

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for the great report and photos! That ammolite is really nice!

[gcaruso]

Looks like a great trip! Thanks for sharing.

[JustPlainPetrified]

Great adventure...thanks for the report and photos. Love the ammonites. Too bad the dino you were looking for had wandered away.

[RJB]

Wow! What a trip report! Sounds like you folks had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing.

RB