Fossil Creeks

These are the creeks near where I live that are frequently visited for fossil hunting. I have found the Possum Creek and upper Hogtown Creek Basins to be most productive, and closest to where I live. I usually enter the creek beds from road bridges; or the city parks that encompass the northern (Ring Park) and southern (Loblolly Nature Center) parts of Hogtown Creek. Winter is the best time to search because of the cool weather, lack of mosquitoes, and the bright sunshine makes the fossils stand out. During the summer frequent thunderstorms wash out more fossils, but you have to battle the heat, bugs, snakes and poison ivy.

I prefer to cover as much ground (or water) as possible while I am searching for fossils. Sometimes I do some digging and sifting at spots, especially new sites or if there hasn't been a good rain for a while. I try not to dig into the banks of the creek bed to avoid increasing the already bad problem of erosion; but rather excavate in the stream bed itself where there is a buildup of gravel. Using various size screens I can quickly find the larger fossils, and gather a good amount of micro material for latter study when it dries out. Then the smaller fossils stand out from the sand, dirt and rocks.