24th Annual Aurora Fossil Festival & TFF Member Meet Up

[SailingAlongToo]

2017 AURORA FOSSIL FESTIVAL AND TFF MEMBER MEET UP

 

The 24th Annual "Aurora Fossil Festival" will be held this Friday through Sunday, May 26 - 28, 2017, in Aurora, NC. There will be a parade down Main Street at 1100 am on Saturday morning, educational displays at the Community Center from 1000 am - 4 pm Saturday, Paleontology Lectures going on throughout the day Saturday AND fresh piles of overburden from the Lee Creek Mine dumped around town, ripe and ready for screening and fossil hunting all weekend. Multiple piles of "FRESH" matrix will be near / adjacent to the Aurora Fossil Museum. There will also be a Live Fossil Auction starting at 3 pm on Saturday, lasting until........... If you have never been, you should definitely plan a trip. If you have never had the "privilege" of hunting Lee Creek Mine matrix, this is your chance for FRESH / VIRGIN material.  (Items up for auction can be seen at the Aurora Fossil Museum's Facebook page, link below.)

 

In addition, numerous TFF Members will be attending / displaying / speaking at the festival. It's a great time to put a face with the screen name.

 

Here is what you need to know:

 

Aurora Fossil Museum - Facebook Page and website:

 

https://www.facebook.com/Aurora-Fossil-Museum-344894278856425/

 

http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/

 

    

 

 

I will have my laptop and camera with me and will be updating this post in "semi"-real time with photos and information from the Festival. Any TFF Members at the Festival can stop by and see me on the porch of the Community Center and I will let you use the camera and laptop to log in and post your own photos / info. If you see someone walking around in a T Rex costume, that should be Mrs. SailingAlongToo.

 

For those Members who can't make it, check back on this post regularly on Saturday for the updates. I for one am looking forward to Dr. Perez's talk on Cookiecutter Sharks!!!!

 

Hope to see / meet as many TFF Members as possible!!!

 

Cheers,

Jack

[SailingAlongToo]

I forgot to add:

 

It's all FREE (except the Live Fossil Auction, but you can check out the items and watch for free)

 

Make sure you tour the Aurora Fossil Museum

 

And, they will have free bus tours of the Lee Creek Mine.

 

Bring with you:

• Screen / Shovel (though the Aurora Fossil Museum will be selling and loaning screens)
• Sunscreen and a hat
• Any fossils you need ID'd (many world renowned experts will be displaying and answering questions at the Community Center)
• Lunch or you can buy it from the many vendors

[aerogrower]

[sixgill pete]

I am looking forward to seeing everyone there this weekend. It's always a lot of great fun and fossils, so come on out and join us.

[ynot]

11 hours ago, SailingAlongToo said:

Live Fossil Auction,

Wish I could go, just to see some live fossils!

 

Have fun there Y'All!!

[SailingAlongToo]

22 minutes ago, ynot said:

Wish I could go, just to see some live fossils!

 

Have fun there Y'All!!

 

Live fossils (auction) are slightly more enjoyable than online fossils (auction) or silent fossils (auction.) 

[Fossil-Hound]

@SailingAlongToo really wish I could make it but I've been out of town so much lately that I'll be staying home with the little one and cleaning up house. Hopefully it won't rain to much this weekend and am looking forward to seeing some good photographs or even a live stream. 

[SailingAlongToo]

FRIDAY update, May 26 at the Aurora Fossil Festival

 

So, Mrs. SA2 and I made the drive down to Aurora this morning. The plan was to run a boat trip with @MikeRfor a few people on the Chowan River near Edenton, NC, looking for shell fossils. THAT didn't work out so well. Here is a photo of angry river about 1000 am this morning (when we were supposed to be putting in.) Should have known when I saw the Small Craft Advisory issued it wouldn't be pretty. 20 mph sustained winds gusting over 25 rolling 2 - 3 footers right up the ramp.

 

 

Not to be deterred, we decided to head on down to Aurora and see what was happening with the piles of Lee Creek material that had been dumped around town. When we got there right after lunch there were probably 50+ people screening and scratching.

 

Here is a photo of 1 of the 2 piles in front of the museum, which is the 2nd photo.

 

 

Here is a photo of Mrs. SA2 and TFF member @Daleksec screening and scratching for "the big one." The next photo is me and @MikeR having a go, using the lazy or "experienced" method. We all found quite a few but only a few were bigger than 1". Daleksec found a periotic that @Boesse ID'd for him and I found 2 dolphin/porpoise verts and 6 or 7 fish verts.

 

 

 

While there, we ran into the @Boneheadz clan. Here is a photo of Mr. Boneheadz in the round hat, Ms. Boneheads and Boneheadz Jr. Mrs. Boneheadz had run out for food for Jr. :-) Always good to run into the Boneheadz clan. Such nice people and they have the coolest t-shirts with their screen name on it, so everyone recognizes them. 

 

 

We finished up around 430p and headed back to the hotel.  Here are photos of the 2 piles in front of the museum. Still lots of people hitting it hard.

 

 

 

I will have my laptop with me tomorrow at the festival and posting in "Semi" real time.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[aerogrower]

Looks like an awesome time. Thanks for the update.

[Fossil-Hound]

Right on! You should post what you found!

[sixgill pete]

Saturday morning view of the piles. 630 am and already a few early birds searching them.

 

[sixgill pete]

A few pictures of the displays

 

 

 

[SailingAlongToo]

SATURDAY UPDATE, May 27th

 

I apologize for not posting during the festival today. Sixgill Pete (Don) and I were fighting horrible phone service in the area which got worst as the day went on. Here is my update.

 

This morning before it got too hot, Mrs. SA2 went around the Festival in costume. First photo is her in the big parking lot with the piles of Lee Cree Mine matrix in the back ground. She had many children come up and get their photo taken with her. Lots of people out early looking for the "the big one." Word had it, that pile behind her was producing some nice teeth all day long. We might hit it Sunday evening or Monday morning before heading home.

 

This second photo is her posing with Dr. Alex Hastings (left) and Dr. Lauck Ward (right) from the VA Museum of Natural History in front of their display at the Fossil Festival. Dr. Hastings gave a talk on dinosaurs during the Festival.

 

 

Here are a few photos of @Daleksec with his display at the Community Center. He displayed with one of the NC Fossil Club tables. Pretty nice set up for a 17 y/o with his very first fossil display.

 

 

    

 

Here is a photo of @Al Dente with his display at another of the NC Fossil Club tables during the Festival.

 

Here is a photo of an awesome scene I got to witness in the Community Center among the educational displays. @Boesse in the black shirt on left and Dave Bohaska (2nd from left holding specimen) of the Smithsonian Museum, were discussing the identification of various cetacean ear bones. Looking on is Mrs. Boesse (3rd from left) with Todd Power (3rd from right) of NCFC. Julie from the NCFC is in the light green shirt and some specimens in her display were what Bobby and Dave were comparing. @sixgill pete(Don) is watching and listening to the discussion from the right in the green shirt. On the right in the background in the medium blue shirt wearing glasses is @Plax(the other Don) looking at another display. The number of different educational displays was absolutely amazing.

 

 

 

At 3pm the educational displays wound down as the fossil auction started up. Here are a few photos of all the people hitting the piles looking for teeth, bone and other fossils as we packed up and were getting ready to leave.

 

  

 

All in all a great day at the Aurora Fossil Festival. The homemade ice cream and funnel cake were delicious as were the Italian sausages.

 

Cheers,

 

SA2/Jack

[Kane]

Great to see so many of our TFF members there.  Thanks for continuing to update us. You are the eyes and ears for those of us too far away to see it in person. 

[sixgill pete]

Jack it was great to see you and everyone else. Besides the folks you mentioned (Daleksec, AlDente, Plax, Boesse, Mrs Boesse and Julie; @Jniederkorn here on the forum) I was able to spend some time with @MikeR as I know you did. I also met for the first time Chris; @Past Hunter. Had a nice conversation with you Chrs, was a pleasure to meet you and your son. Not to mention the @Boneheadz bunch. 

 

Bobby, @Boesse brought me my cast and the original plesiosaur vert I found a few month ago in the PeeDee formation. He did a fantastic job on the cast, soon the vert will be in the hands of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. What a great couple of people Bobby and his wife Sarah are. It is my great pleasure to know them both. He also surprised me with a painted cast of the Eosqualodon tooth I donated to him and the Mace Brown Museum at last years festival. Great job on it also. 

 

I also was able to spend some time with my good friend, and all around wise alek GeorgePowell; @powelli1. Was great to see you young man. 

 

If I have forgotten anyone, please speak up and you have my apologies.

 

All in all, once again the festival was a great time for all involved. Next year we need to try to have a huge meet up of TFF folks.

[Boneheadz]

Jack @SailingAlongToo it was great seeing you and meeting Trevor @Daleksec, That dolphin display was awesome, I'm super jealous haha. Were gonna have to catch up with you guys soon. @sixgill pete It was nice seeing you again and thanks again for the Echinoids, they're really cool! Also, @powelli1 George it was great meeting you and seeing your immense collection and hearing your expertise in not only fossils but in life in general and hopefully we can plan a time to come down and see you when its not festival season haha. Also, Jack should we post finds from the weekend on this thread or should we make a new one? 

If you've never been to the Aurora Fossil Festival its definitely worth your time and is a good time for all!

[SailingAlongToo]

Boneheads,

 

Post your finds here. 

I will later this evening when we get off the river. Heading out on Neuse now hoping to find some cool shell fossils.

 

Cheers,

Jack

[Ludwigia]

20 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

A few pictures of the displays

 

 

 

 

 

I think I recognize that Aturia on the left

[Ludwigia]

Thanks very much for drawing the attention of those of us who were not yet in the know about this very special yearly event and all of the accompanying activities and attractions in and around Aurora and the Lee Creek Mine. It's really great to see so many amateurs and professionals, many of whom are active in TFF, working constructively together to pull off such a fantastic event. Now I'd love to get there someday myself!

[sixgill pete]

19 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

I think I recognize that Aturia on the left

 

I think some of us may have seen it a time or two. 

 

BTW, that is my grandson Nick in the picture.

[Ludwigia]

1 minute ago, sixgill pete said:

 

I think some of us may have seen it a time or two. 

 

BTW, that is my grandson Nick in the picture.

 

I did happen to recognize a slight family resemblance. Nice to see all you guys in living color here.

[sixgill pete]

5 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Thanks very much for drawing the attention of those of us who were not yet in the know about this very special yearly event and all of the accompanying activities and attractions in and around Aurora and the Lee Creek Mine. It's really great to see so many amateurs and professionals, many of whom are active in TFF, working constructively together to pull off such a fantastic event. Now I'd love to get there someday myself!

 

Besides all of the forum members mentioned in the post, we also had a large slew of other characters on hand. Bruce McFadden from the University of Florida and the myFossil project (www.myfossil.org). Also Dave Bohaska from the Smithsonian. Also there were people there from several other universities. 

[SailingAlongToo]

SUNDAY Update, 5/28/17

 

With the forecast for 90+ degrees and sunny, we took the boats out of New Bern along the Neuse River today looking for shell fossils. With @MikeR and Dr. Ward handling the shell identification and stratigraphy knowledge, we had 12 people in 2 boats heading out for a day on the water. 

 

First stop was a bluff downstream of town which had an exposure of the James City Formation of the lower Pleistocene (~1.8 MY) in the lower 8 foot of strata. Here are some photos of the exposure and shells lying or being exposed in the beach and in the water. (Note one of @aerogrower's scale cubes in the bottom of the 2nd photo showing just how big these clams are.)

 

  

 

The next 2 photos are the group scouring the beach and bluff for goodies to take home. In the photo of the group looking at the bluff, @Jniederkorn (Julie) is in the brown shirt holding bucket.

 

 

 

Photo on the left, below is @AshHendrick checking out specimens with one of the other group members. Photo on the right is Mrs. SA2 holding a "fatty" of a clam with both valves and modeling her new fossil collecting hat.

  

 

Once we finished at this spot, we headed about down river to a nice stretch of beach with literally thousands of busycons of various species that are between ~ 75,000 - 100,000 YO. Here are a few photos of some of the shells we found. @aerogrower, Mrs. SA2 and I collected a full set of these beauties for you in various sizes!!

 

   

 

Finally, here is a photos of the 2nd site's bluff showing the stratigraphy. Various shells can be seen exposed in the slough on the right side of the photo.

 

 

Tomorrow morning we will be back at the Aurora Fossil Festival screening some more before we head home. Once home, I will clean up and post what we found in the Lee Creek matrix.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

[aerogrower]

Looks like you need a bigger cube, those shells are huge!!

[sixgill pete]

Looks like you guys had a pretty good day Jack. A couple of those spots look really familiar ... 

@aerogrower thanks for the cube.