In your opinion, what are the best 5 Fossil hunting sites in the U.S.?

[abach292]

I'm looking to plan a few trips, to diversify my collection and see some other great sites. And wondering if there is a general consensus of a shortlist of sorts of the best fossil hunting sites in America.

Now I say fossil "hunting" sites because I am sure there are great sites on private land that will be prohibited forever. But for the hobbyist, who likes to go out, explore, and do some hunting what are the best? where have you been? I think next on my list is shark/meg tooth hunting in Florida.

 

My top 5 is below, though I've only actually been to Mazon Creek.

1.) Mazon Creek, IL (though this is location bias  )

2.) Green River Formation, Wyoming

3.) Peace River, Florida

4.) Shark Tooth Hill, California

5.) Badlands? haven't researched as much

 

Curious to hear thoughts of the forum. 

[Darktooth]

Best fossil hunting sites is relative to what types of fossils you want to find. For instance, the 5 best fossil sites for sharkteeth will not be the 5 best spots for trilobites and will not be the 5 best spots for plants. Ect. Now if you are asking us for our top 5 "favorite"sites to fossil hunt at, then that is a different story.

Edited August 31, 2016 by darctooth
Wanted to add content

[abach292]

This is true, I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of diversity, and ease of access of what the best the U.S. has to offer. I guess I'm odd in that I want to have a collection with shark teeth, concretions, vertebrates, etc. And I'm a planner so I'm already thinking years ahead of my next places.

[FossilDAWG]

1. RJB's shed

2. RJB's garage

3. RJB's basement

4. RJB's other property

5. RJB's truck

At least, that's the way it seems from all the amazing fossils he "rediscovers" after having forgotten about them.

Don

[Raggedy Man]

1 minute ago, FossilDAWG said:

1. RJB's shed

2. RJB's garage

3. RJB's basement

4. RJB's other property

5. RJB's truck

At least, that's the way it seems from all the amazing fossils he "rediscovers" after having forgotten about them.

Don

And we have a winner!!!! 

[Raggedy Man]

26 minutes ago, abach292 said:

This is true, I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of diversity, and ease of access of what the best the U.S. has to offer. I guess I'm odd in that I want to have a collection with shark teeth, concretions, vertebrates, etc. And I'm a planner so I'm already thinking years ahead of my next places.

There's nothing wrong with a diverse collection. If it's a fossil, collect it!! 

By the way, you completely forgot about Black Cat Mountain, Penn Dixie, silicate shales of Ohio, Utah, or any other trilobite location. ☺ I mean come on! They were fossils long before dinosaurs walked the earth. As you can see, I'm a tad bit bias. Lol 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Raggedy Man

[JohnJ]

7 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

1. RJB's shed

2. RJB's garage

3. RJB's basement

4. RJB's other property

5. RJB's truck

At least, that's the way it seems from all the amazing fossils he "rediscovers" after having forgotten about them.

Don

@RJB

[abach292]

1 hour ago, Raggedy Man said:

 Black Cat Mountain, Penn Dixie, silicate shales of Ohio, Utah, or any other trilobite location. ☺ I mean come on! They were fossils long before dinosaurs walked the earth. As you can see, I'm a tad bit bias. Lol 

exactly why i posted thanks! i havent heard of any of those! but about to look these up and perhaps add them to my list

[siteseer]

Yeah, I keep reading about all the great once-forgotten stuff that RJB finds in his garage.  I hope I get a message when he plans on having a garage sale.  I'd just like to see it all.

[ynot]

Wheeler amphitheater, Antelope springs, House range, Utah.

Fossil hill, Humboldt mountains, nevada.

Sharktooth hill, Bakersfield, California.

Green river formation, Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Sandia peak, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

Those are My favorite five that are still accessible.

Tony

 

[siteseer]

My favorite place to collect is definitely the Ernst Ranch, Bakersfield, California for Sharktooth Hill Bonebed fossils.  I was one of the lucky ones who collected with Bob Ernst and we became good friends.  It turned out that we had mutual friends as well.  I met Isurus90064 on the property and he's an old friend of mine now.  It's surprising what you can find there in a day if you put in the digging and then you save some matrix to screen when you get home and it's a whole other world of fossils to enjoy.  Bob passed away in 2007 but you can still dig on the land - now supervised by his son.

 

I collected the Oligocene badlands of northeastern Nebraska in the early 90's.  A friend and I collected for a day after getting a tip from one of the Black Hills guys.  Of course, it's a different way of collecting.  You're looking for glints of bone and teeth reflecting on the surface as you walk on uneven terrain, often climbing up and down hills, watching for good footholds.  You want to cover as much ground as possible without overlooking anything.  Someone might find something good in your footprints.

 

I collected at a split-fish quarry in the early 90's too.  A friend had a lease for two summers.  He let me and a friend dig for free the day I was there (another day had been a rain-out - even a Suburban can't take a high hill climb in mud sometimes).  That was a lot of work too.  It was a cool day in late spring.  I thought my hands were cold but they were just unusually sore.  I didn't get a chance to dig the 18-inch layer -would be fun to get your fish there as well.

 

I'd like to try on of the Mazon Creek sites some day and the Peace River too.  Florissant and Republic, Washington would be on some favorite lists as well.

[Troodon]

Love all of the areas and would not disagree with any.  I would also like to add Calvert Cliffs (Bayfront Beach) to the list just because of the ease of access to anyone of all ages to collect and go home with a bag of goodies.  Its a great place for newbies to get started and collect teeth all day.  No digging tools required just a fun fun day on the Chesapeake Bay and when your overheated just go swimming.  

 

The other one that I would like to add but it's closed is Lee Creek.   My trips to the mine were awesome and the material you could go home with could fill a bucket.   Hopefully the mine will reopen, maybe that's wishful thinking.

 

 

[Darktooth]

I have to agree with Troodon , Bayfront is my favorite place for all the same reasons. Plus one and that is the quality of the fossils. While not everything you find will be perfect, I have found some pristine specimens there. 

[Stingray]

Depends on what locality I'm hunting in. Sometimes I ask other members and sometimes I research state museums for documents on long ago locations. This is usually an invaluable resource once you establish by Google earth that there is not a shopping mall on top of it...

[Wrangellian]

Although I have no personal experience, judging by what I see and read about it here on the Forum, I would add Jacksboro Texas (Pennsylvanian) and possibly the Whiskey Bridge site (Eocene) too.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Wrangellian

[jpc]

a quick comment on the original post:

When you say "Badlands"... that is not a fossil site.  Badlands refers to a certain landform... an area that is generally steep, non-vegetated and composed of fine grained mudstones and similar rocks, generally in dryish climates with much topographical variety.  It would be like saying "Cliffs".  Badlands occur in many many different geological units.  

 

I think it is safe to assume that you mean the White River Formation, famous for not only its fossils, but for ... get this... Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  

 

There... you have now begun your research into the famous White River Formation.  (I used to make the same mistake).   

[DevonianDigger]

I definitely put Penn Dixie on the list, and so do a lot of others! Have a look at this:

 

Geobiological Opportunities To Learn At U.S. Fossil Parks

[erose]

All of these would qualify on three counts: diversity, quality and ease of collecting. 

 

1) For  shear diversity and variety of sites to collect you can not beat the Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) SW Ohio, SE Indiana and N Kentucky. You could spend a day jumping around the many sites in SW Ohio or an entire day at St Leon, Indiana or the AAA cuts in Maysville, Kentucky. (no vertebrates, but the species list is well over 700 and there are dozens and dozens of common ones to collect including weird echinoderms and trilobites)

 

2) Definitely Jacksboro, Texas for variety but there would also be the Mineral Wells Fossil Park, Wilson Clay Pit and other Upper Pennsylvanian age locals in that part of Texas for everything from ancient shark teeth to weird invertebrates like conularids and rostroconchs. (hundreds of species, including vertebrate and plant)

 

3) Whiskey Bridge near Bryan, TX is a world class location. Eocene abundance and real easy to collect. (more than 250 species of invertebrates as well as teeth and other goodies)

 

4) The Middle Devonian of New York State. Penn Dixie would be a sure bet for trilobites and other stuff but with some research you could easily put together a day or two from the Catskills of the east thru the Finger Lakes (stop at PRI Near Ithaca!) and end at Penn Dixie in the west. (hundreds of known species, dozens of common ones)

 

5) Big Brook and the other streams of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Maybe not as rich in variety as some of the above but you would not leave empty-handed. And it continues to surprise everyone with really cool stuff including dinosaur material.

 

Others have already mentioned some of these but many of us will overlap.

[abach292]

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 0:21 AM, ynot said:

Wheeler amphitheater, Antelope springs, House range, Utah.

Fossil hill, Humboldt mountains, nevada.

Sharktooth hill, Bakersfield, California.

Green river formation, Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Sandia peak, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

Those are My favorite five that are still accessible.

Tony

 

 

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 0:33 AM, siteseer said:

My favorite place to collect is definitely the Ernst Ranch, Bakersfield, California for Sharktooth Hill Bonebed fossils.   Oligocene badlands of northeastern Nebraska.

I'd like to try on of the Mazon Creek sites some day and the Peace River too.  Florissant and Republic, Washington would be on some favorite lists as well.

 

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 6:36 AM, Troodon said:

I would also like to add Calvert Cliffs (Bayfront Beach) to the list

 

 

 

15 hours ago, DevonianDigger said:

I definitely put Penn Dixie on the list, and so do a lot of others! Have a look at this:

 

Geobiological Opportunities To Learn At U.S. Fossil Parks

24 minutes ago, erose said:

All of these would qualify on three counts: diversity, quality and ease of collecting. 

 

1) For  shear diversity and variety of sites to collect you can not beat the Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) SW Ohio, SE Indiana and N Kentucky. You could spend a day jumping around the many sites in SW Ohio or an entire day at St Leon, Indiana or the AAA cuts in Maysville, Kentucky. (no vertebrates, but the species list is well over 700 and there are dozens and dozens of common ones to collect including weird echinoderms and trilobites)

 

2) Definitely Jacksboro, Texas for variety but there would also be the Mineral Wells Fossil Park, Wilson Clay Pit and other Upper Pennsylvanian age locals in that part of Texas for everything from ancient shark teeth to weird invertebrates like conularids and rostroconchs. (hundreds of species, including vertebrate and plant)

 

3) Whiskey Bridge near Bryan, TX is a world class location. Eocene abundance and real easy to collect. (more than 250 species of invertebrates as well as teeth and other goodies)

 

4) The Middle Devonian of New York State. Penn Dixie would be a sure bet for trilobites and other stuff but with some research you could easily put together a day or two from the Catskills of the east thru the Finger Lakes (stop at PRI Near Ithaca!) and end at Penn Dixie in the west. (hundreds of known species, dozens of common ones)

 

5) Big Brook and the other streams of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Maybe not as rich in variety as some of the above but you would not leave empty-handed. And it continues to surprise everyone with really cool stuff including dinosaur material.

 

Others have already mentioned some of these but many of us will overlap.

16 hours ago, jpc said:

a quick comment on the original post:

When you say "Badlands"... that is not a fossil site.  Badlands refers to a certain landform... an area that is generally steep, non-vegetated and composed of fine grained mudstones and similar rocks, generally in dryish climates with much topographical variety.  It would be like saying "Cliffs".  Badlands occur in many many different geological units.  

 

I think it is safe to assume that you mean the White River Formation, famous for not only its fossils, but for ... get this... Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  

 

There... you have now begun your research into the famous White River Formation.  (I used to make the same mistake).   

yes, that is 100% what I meant. haha, thank you for the insight.

 

And these are all fantastic suggestions, so thank you to all!

Thankfully we have a 3-day weekend coming up so I can really dive into these all, and start seeing what I can realistically do in 2017. Perhaps I will post my plans as I consider them, for those that may be interested in joining.

 

[Fruitbat]

Interesting that nobody seems to have mentioned the North Sulphur River in northeast Texas.  That has been a very productive site for decades!

-Joe

 

[RJB]

1.  My fossil shop

2.  My work shop

3.  My fossil shed

4.  My other fossil shed

5.  And lastly, my garage where I prep all my fossils.

 

[BobWill]

Okay, I'm definitely seeing a vertebrate bias in your original post, which is fine but not all of us have the same interests:)

I'm glad to see that corrected in the replies with the inclusion of some very diverse sites like Jacksboro. It has some vertebrate material too but the diversity of inverts there is hard to beat at any single site and provides so many possibilities to add new items to your collection.

Nice thread for building a bucket list for the future. I still have lots of these sites to check off my list and who knows I might even like finding a bone or two. I do like my teeth from Post Oak Creek!

[ynot]

3 hours ago, BobWill said:

 

Okay, I'm definitely seeing a vertebrate bias in your original post, which is fine but not all of us have the same interests:)

 

That is so untrue-- 3 of My 5 are invert sites!!

 

Tony

[Missourian]

1. The spot in front of me.

2. The spot behind me.

3. The spot to my left.

4. The spot to my right.

5. The spot below my feet.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Personally, I pick my favorites based on proximity, so I could make more frequent trips. With this in mind, My new fav is the Tibbs Bridge exposure of the Conasauga formation in chatsworth, GA. ATM it is the closest site to home, being only an hour and a half away, and what makes it even better is the fact that it has LOADS of cambrian trilos. My dream site, TBH.