Cross Florida Barge Canal

[beanpaint]

So at the Florida barge Canal, you can find echinoids supposedly. I actually found a forum post on this site from 2019 where someone found some. And one other forum post. If you have been to this location, I would appreciate help with finding where exactly I'm supposed to dig. We parked on the south side of the bridge. We walked to the right down to the gate and then found the Florida trail. There were no gravel piles dig in. We tried digging right next to the water. And we tried digging on the trail in a hole where it seemed like others dug maybe a couple years ago. All we found was sand. Are we supposed to just dig until we find an echinoid🤣 maybe someone with experience in general knows more than me and could help even if you havent been to htis site🥲 thanks~

[Coco]

Hi,

 

The best is to study the geological maps of the area where you want to dig, they will teach you a lot. Fossil research is a very interesting hobby, but requires a minimum of work upstream. It’s like asking a fisherman or a mushroom picker for his best spot, he won’t give it, even if you know him, so imagine if we don’t know you.

 

Arriving on the forum and asking immediately where to look will probably not bring an answer. First participate in discussions, make yourself known, share photos of your collection, and things will be done

 

Florida is full of fossils, I would like to look for shells one day, but I don’t think that will happen.

 

Welcome on TFF.

 

Coco

[Sacha]

7 hours ago, beanpaint said:

So at the Florida barge Canal, you can find echinoids supposedly. I actually found a forum post on this site from 2019 where someone found some. And one other forum post. If you have been to this location, I would appreciate help with finding where exactly I'm supposed to dig. We parked on the south side of the bridge. We walked to the right down to the gate and then found the Florida trail. There were no gravel piles dig in. We tried digging right next to the water. And we tried digging on the trail in a hole where it seemed like others dug maybe a couple years ago. All we found was sand. Are we supposed to just dig until we find an echinoid🤣 maybe someone with experience in general knows more than me and could help even if you havent been to htis site🥲 thanks~

@digit will give you the specifics. I've only hunted the Yankeetown Spoil islands with kayaks, but Ken has directed others who were land bound. Search for topics on the forum with key word "Yankeetown" to get more info on what is available.

[FossilDAWG]

My own very limited experience (one short stop) was that I found some along the bank where they were washing out.  I also recall someone posting about surface collecting some where material dug out of the canal was piled up.  Of course the canal was dug long ago so those tailings are grown over with trees and other vegetation, but at least a few years ago nice specimens could be found.  I doubt that digging at random would be very productive, especially in sandy material.  Areas with lots of limestone chunks would be better, although harder to dig in.

 

Don

[RuMert]

Well, sometimes asking outright brings good results, so why not start with it😀 There's a joke about, but it;s not so appropriate to tell here😀The next thing I usually do is a simple google search with the place and the type of fossils, there are sometimes mentions in blogs and media. Next look science papers, using, for example, google scholar - there are lots of papers where they give the exact location of the finds studied. Same with books and scientific literature, again using place, fossil type, period, etc. Also there are some websites that document all the fossil sites in a given region. Only afterwards I'd look at the maps and more specialized sources. Maps are good to find undocumented outcrops

[Adam86cucv]

I am probably the post you found from '19.  I didn't dig any, I looked on the ground near the edge of the water amongst the rocks, trees and bushes.