GMR, stop #2 on our road trip

[fossilnoggin]

Second stop on our road trip was gmr. We arrived Thursday evening. Friday morning, we had an appointment to meet George Powell and see his collection. It was an experience we will not forget anytime soon. George was incredibly kind with his time, knowledge, and collection. It was a sight to see. The fossils wer fantastic, well organized and beautifully displayed.  George regaled us with many stories, and shared his impressive and deep knowledge of the fossils he has found. I learned as much as the kids did!!! We thanked George Profusely and headed to GMR. 

 

I had never been to GMR before. We parked  in the baseball field lot and headed downstream of the bridge. Explored an area from the bridge to about 300 yards down. We saw lots of already-screened gravel piles in the area. The best condition teeth we found were Cretaceous.  Found some great white fragments/partials and some very worn great white pieces.  And a slew of various types of teeth, almost all we found were very worn- which I understand Is the norm here?  We did not see anything like what the forum trip earlier this month produced. We also found lots and lots of belemnites, and bone fragments. 

 

We really had a great time collecting  here. We found many teeth, belemnites, and bone frags. This kept me and the kids very busy, and kept their interest.  Because of this we weee able to spend almost 4 hours collecting.  A record for me and the Boys. 

 

I may stop back here on my return drive to nj to explore a different area of the stream on my way back home. If anyone has an interest in gmr and would like to chat, please pm me. I’d really like to learn more about the geology and stratigraphy of the stream. 

 

[fossilnoggin]

[SailingAlongToo]

We were there today with 6 of our friends, 1 of which has hunted GMR for 30+ years. The destruction by digging in the stream banks was incredible & blatantly criminal. Our friend with 30+ years of experience there said he hadnt seen it that bad since the late 1980s - early 1990s. I have never seen it that bad in 9 years. THAT digging in the banks is how places get shut down.

 

We had a good day with friends otherwise.

[Plax]

The earlier destruction would coincide with the site's publication in "Fossil Collecting in North Carolina". There was a slight lag in timing as the pub wasn't well known when first published. The state had a green tri-fold about fossil collecting previous to the book. Most of the early destruction was from out of state collectors as the NC folks were very much into surface collecting at the time. The greed of treasure hunters will always lead to this kind of excavation. There are too many instances to cite. We do this sort of thing and then complain about restrictive laws as if we have a right to do as we please in pursuit of fossils. Am thinking that this is human nature and nothing can be done about it.