(Fossil Hunt) Road trip up the east coast, novice looking for advice

[NYtxAZ]

Hello all,

I am a new fossil hunter and will be taking a road trip up the east coast. I have 10 days to get from Georgia to New York. I will be stopping at the Calvert Cliffs, the Aurora Fossil Museum and the Aurora area. I have some extra time and I am open to other places that might be fruitful on the east coast. My desired find is a Megalodon tooth, but I will be happy with what ever I find. Any suggestions about Calvert Cliffs or the Aurora area? Any other suggest areas to hit? Also any suggestions or good places to get some info for novices would be gratefully appreciated. I have read several threads and feel better prepared then before, but any help would be appreciated. I am also open to meeting up with a local fossil hunter. I will post a thread when I get home to Arizona after the road trip chronicling my adventure and any finds.

[JohnBrewer]

Can't help I'm afraid but welcome to the forum

[KansasFossilFinder]

I've never been but I have heard good things about the summerville area in SC, you might want to look into it.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Hello all,

I am a new fossil hunter and will be taking a road trip up the east coast. I have 10 days to get from Georgia to New York. I will be stopping at the Calvert Cliffs, the Aurora Fossil Museum and the Aurora area. I have some extra time and I am open to other places that might be fruitful on the east coast. My desired find is a Megalodon tooth, but I will be happy with what ever I find. Any suggestions about Calvert Cliffs or the Aurora area? Any other suggest areas to hit? Also any suggestions or good places to get some info for novices would be gratefully appreciated. I have read several threads and feel better prepared then before, but any help would be appreciated. I am also open to meeting up with a local fossil hunter. I will post a thread when I get home to Arizona after the road trip chronicling my adventure and any finds.

A very fossil rich area is Nashville. There are at least 2 good ordovician sites I found out about on the internet which i have traveled to and found a good assortment of Ordovician brachiopods as well as byrozoans. The website is in this link: http://suburbanturmoil.com/fossil-hunting-in-and-around-nashville/2015/07/06/

You will also find some success in Jekyll island. there is a shark tooth beach on the western side of the island where you can find a good amount of Miocene shark teeth and ray dental plates, though it can be somewhat tricky to find (Found this particular site in a YouTube series called "Hidden Jekyll"). There is also Summerville SC, which has sites known for their quality shark teeth and vertebra. The last place i currently know along the east coast that can present some good finds is Stratford Hall, in Virginia. Not only is it the home of Robert E. Lee, but there is also a Miocene cliff not too far down the road from the actual hotel you stay in where you can find shark teeth, ray dental plates, as well as crustacean trace fossils to the occasional whale bones. These are the sites i have currently been to on the east coast, though i am sure you can find a good number more further north. Hope this helps!

[Boesse]

If you come through Charleston, make sure to stop by the College of Charleston Mace Brown Museum of Natural History! It's right here in downtown Charleston, open every day except Wednesday, 11am-4pm. Free admission! With extensive displays of east coast fossils.

[SailingAlongToo]

A very fossil rich area is Nashville. There are at least 2 good ordovician sites I found out about on the internet which i have traveled to and found a good assortment of Ordovician brachiopods as well as byrozoans. The website is in this link: http://suburbanturmoil.com/fossil-hunting-in-and-around-nashville/2015/07/06/

You will also find some success in Jekyll island. there is a shark tooth beach on the western side of the island where you can find a good amount of Miocene shark teeth and ray dental plates, though it can be somewhat tricky to find (Found this particular site in a YouTube series called "Hidden Jekyll"). There is also Summerville SC, which has sites known for their quality shark teeth and vertebra. The last place i currently know along the east coast that can present some good finds is Stratford Hall, in Virginia. Not only is it the home of Robert E. Lee, but there is also a Miocene cliff not too far down the road from the actual hotel you stay in where you can find shark teeth, ray dental plates, as well as crustacean trace fossils to the occasional whale bones. These are the sites i have currently been to on the east coast, though i am sure you can find a good number more further north. Hope this helps!

If you go to Stratford Hall or Westmoreland State Park, remember there are only small, limited areas that are open to the public for fossil collecting. At SH it is about 100 yards of beach near the old grist mill, that is roped in where the public is allowed to go. At WMSP, it is about 50 yards of beach between the cliffs called Fossil Beach where the public is allowed. If you go ANYWHERE else at these 2 places you are trespassing and they do prosecute. The cliffs at both of these places are VERY dangerous normally, but even more so now with all the rain we've had lately. Lots of fresh cliff falls and sloughs that have dropped car size chunks of earth or house size mud flows on the beach and in the water.

A place I would suggest in addition to Calvert Cliffs is Purses State Park on the MD side of the Potomac across from Quantico Marine Base. Both Calvert and Purses get very busy on weekends in the summer so I would recommend mid-week. You will want to catch the last 2-3 hours of the outgoing tide, low tide and the first 2-3 hours of the incoming tide. That will give you 6-8 hours of good collecting time.

Just my 2 cents, which of course is always free.

SA2

[MeargleSchmeargl]

If you go to Stratford Hall or Westmoreland State Park, remember there are only small, limited areas that are open to the public for fossil collecting. At SH it is about 100 yards of beach near the old grist mill, that is roped in where the public is allowed to go. At WMSP, it is about 50 yards of beach between the cliffs called Fossil Beach where the public is allowed. If you go ANYWHERE else at these 2 places you are trespassing and they do prosecute. The cliffs at both of these places are VERY dangerous normally, but even more so now with all the rain we've had lately. Lots of fresh cliff falls and sloughs that have dropped car size chunks of earth or house size mud flows on the beach and in the water.

A place I would suggest in addition to Calvert Cliffs is Purses State Park on the MD side of the Potomac across from Quantico Marine Base. Both Calvert and Purses get very busy on weekends in the summer so I would recommend mid-week. You will want to catch the last 2-3 hours of the outgoing tide, low tide and the first 2-3 hours of the incoming tide. That will give you 6-8 hours of good collecting time.

Just my 2 cents, which of course is always free.

SA2

Yea, you are a little bit in a pen there. When i personally went to stratford hall, I found a good bit at low tide after a good rain. shark teeth, ray dental plates, and a few crustacean trace fossils were among my finds. Quite productive, IMO.

[mrieder79]

There are places in charleston to look. Industrious use of google maps often yields dredge pile sites. Just be careful that you don't trespass or get hurt.

[AshHendrick]

Curious where all you ended up going? I'm planning a trip for my Birthday weekend from Greenville NC up to possibly NJ for 6 days - aside from Potomac, Calvert cliffs and west moreland, did you go anywhere else you'd recommend? 

[SailingAlongToo]

Ash,

 

Let me know when you think you might be in the VA area and I'll see if I can help you out and put you on a few spots.

 

Jack

[MCG DAWG]

Where in Georgia are you starting?  

 

Are you willing to pay for a charter boat to take you somewhere or are you looking for strictly beach/land based sites?

[FossilDAWG]

20 hours ago, MCG DAWG said:

Where in Georgia are you starting?  

 

Are you willing to pay for a charter boat to take you somewhere or are you looking for strictly beach/land based sites?

NYtxAZ asked his (or her) question last July 3, and last logged in on July 15.  I'm sure the trip is long over, and they never posted anything about what they found.

 

Don

[MCG DAWG]

2 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

NYtxAZ asked his (or her) question last July 3, and last logged in on July 15.  I'm sure the trip is long over, and they never posted anything about what they found.

 

Don

 

And now I feel stupid for not looking at the date!  ;-)

 

Is the DAWG part of your handle perhaps UGA related?

[FossilDAWG]

No need to feel "stupid", this happens to everybody.  I sometimes wish the person who digs up a thread from years ago and decides to add a reply would include some "trigger words", such as "I know this is an old thread but...".  I also post to a skydiving forum and the same thing happens there, someone digs up an old thread and everyone adds on, not realizing they are responding to a conversation that ended long ago, over 8 years in one case I recall.

 

And yes, the "DAWG" refers to UGA where I am a professor.

 

Don

[MCG DAWG]

58 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

No need to feel "stupid", this happens to everybody.  I sometimes wish the person who digs up a thread from years ago and decides to add a reply would include some "trigger words", such as "I know this is an old thread but...".  I also post to a skydiving forum and the same thing happens there, someone digs up an old thread and everyone adds on, not realizing they are responding to a conversation that ended long ago, over 8 years in one case I recall.

 

And yes, the "DAWG" refers to UGA where I am a professor.

 

Don

 

Nice to meet you Professor.  I'm UGA class of '96. South Campus type as well, degree was in Biology.  Went on to MCG in Augusta, hence my handle.  We come back to town a lot for football/baseball weekends as we own a spot out in Bulldog RV park on the east side of town.  

 

Have gotten into shark teeth/beach fossil hunting over the past few years. Primarily from Charleston down to Amelia Island, FL.  Strictly amateurish and with little knowlege of the eras and age of what we are finding . . .  but we don't let that ignorance dampen the fun of the finds.  

 

Go Dawgs!

[A_Norris]

Hello! Current UGA student, gotta give a GO DAWGS!!