Lake Gibson and Tulsa-area sites

[OkieMomma]

We live in Tulsa and I want to take a few day trips to look for fossils. We will be near Lake Gibson this coming weekend. I have read that there are good areas near the dam there but do not know where to look. Any help would be great! My kids are really excited about hunting! We have a lot to learn but might as well get started. Thanks!!!

[Innocentx]

Hey @OkieMomma. Welcome to the Forum from Kansas. Here is a site with list that may be of help to you and your kids.

Hope you will post photos after your adventure. 

[ynot]

On 1/13/2019 at 10:25 AM, Innocentx said:

Here is a site with list that

Where is the list?

[Innocentx]

On 1/17/2019 at 1:45 PM, ynot said:

Where is the list?

Duh on me.

 

http://www.donaldkenney.x10.mx/STATES/OK.HTM

[FossilDAWG]

You should be aware that the information in that list is quite old.  It was compiled from localities in published papers, many dating back many decades.  Some sites may still be accessible, but my experience with the Georgia and Alabama lists is that the sizeable majority are flooded (many rivers have been dammed in the last 100 years), overgrown, under shopping malls or subdivisions, or are on private property.  However new exposures may be generated by road construction, new quarries, spillways below dams, and so on.  Also most.of the sites listed are described so vaguely that no one would ever be able to use them to find an exposure, for example "14 miles south of Bob Smith's church, Bullock County".  This sort of imprecision was common in paleontological papers in the early 1900s but it is unacceptable today.

 

I think it would be interesting if people would make a project of tracking down all the sites in their area listed by Donald Kenny.  In the meantime I suggest the list should be approached with the assumption that the sites no longer exist, so anyone using the list should plan to check out many in the hope that one will be worthwhile.

 

Don