Tell me your craziest/most interesting fossil stories!

[Pseudogygites]

Hi! While I've also been fossil collecting, I am also volunteering for a local theatre company right now. This month, we will hopefully be leading a free acting program for youth in our community. Among my roles is writer/co-writer for the script that the youth will be performing. Ideas for what the script will be about have been scarce, but I do have one idea. I am thinking of making a vignette play (essentially an anthology of related scenes) about the lives of fossil hunters and palaeontologists. The scenes would be transcribed from various historical accounts and stories published in literature, but I would like to have some modern day scenes as well! If you are comfortable with it, I would really love to hear some of your craziest or most interesting stories from your lives of fossil hunting and collecting! Maybe it was a thrilling brush with danger while in the field, maybe it was an interaction between you and a cooky character, maybe it was a moment that cemented your love for fossils early in your life. I'll take anything! Regale me with your tales in the replies section or by sending them directly to me! Details, names, etc. may be changed or omitted, but I'd like to keep them as accurate as possible. Please also indicate if you would potentially be alright if your story made it into the production somehow. Thank you!

[jpc]

I have a lot (that are being saved for my memoire) but here is a quick one.  I was about 30 miles down a dirt road one fine spring day exploring southwestern Wyoming.  At 20 to 30 mph, I had not seen anyone for an hour and a half, at least.  Then I saw a pickup with its hood up.  As I got to the guy who was naturally (as guys do) standing out by the open hood peering into the engine.  I got out and asked him if he was OK.  I was worried, naturally... we were miles from nowhere.  Could I help him?  Would I need to give him a lift?  Was he a mass murderer?  (Movie reference: But then, what are the chances of two mass murderers in the same car?)  The guy looked at me and said, "nope, just getting more coffee".  He produced a peanut butter jar (glass!!!) from the exhaust manifold full of hot coffee and proceeded to fill his coffee cup.  Then thanked me for stopping. 

 

A glass jar on the exhaust manifold on dirt roads!!!  He aid he'd been doing this for years and had never once broken a jar and spilled his coffee onto the manifold.     

[Pseudogygites]

Incredible! If this story is at all indicative of what is to come, I’m very excited! I should also note that bits of dialogue/inner monologues (as were included in the above story) would be very much appreciated! 

[DPS Ammonite]

I can see him cooking eggs and pancakes for breakfast on his manifold too.

 

39 minutes ago, jpc said:

A glass jar on the exhaust manifold on dirt roads!!!  He aid he'd been doing this for years and had never once broken a jar and spilled his coffee onto the manifold.     

 

[Meganeura]

4 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

I can see him cooking eggs and pancakes for breakfast on his manifold too.

 

 

What, no rare, dashboard-cooked steak?

[DPS Ammonite]

3 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

What, no rare, dashboard-cooked steak?

Won’t work, he’s not in Arizona.

[JohnJ]

1 hour ago, Pseudogygites said:

I would really love to hear some of your craziest or most interesting stories from your lives of fossil hunting and collecting!

 

Part of your role as a writer is research.  Maybe you and your friends can dig into the Fossil Hunting Trips forum for something that catches your interest, then contact the author.  

[Denis Arcand]

What's crazier than cooking fossils on the BBQ?

 

On 7/6/2022 at 9:06 PM, Denis Arcand said:

I started experimenting, I put a rock containing fossils in the oven and set the heat to maximum (don't laugh, this is a very serious experiment) after heating the fossil for a solid hour, nothing happened. For my second try, I used my barbecue (don't laugh), I think I can have a higher temperature with it, I cook the same fossil for an hour and I get the same result: nothing. I needed more heat, so for my third try I put the fossil not on the grill but directly on the burners, and hooray I got white crinoids and Sowerbyella that really stand out from the matrix. 

 

 

[jpc]

3 hours ago, Pseudogygites said:

Incredible! If this story is at all indicative of what is to come, I’m very excited! I should also note that bits of dialogue/inner monologues (as were included in the above story) would be very much appreciated! 

I say, as the young emerging thespian, the challenge is for you to write good dialog to accentuate the scene.  When I do write that best selling memoire the tough part will be indeed, the dialog and thoughts.  Stories are easy... dialog is difficult, character development is for experts only.   : )

 

 

[Pseudogygites]

1 hour ago, jpc said:

I say, as the young emerging thespian, the challenge is for you to write good dialog to accentuate the scene.  When I do write that best selling memoire the tough part will be indeed, the dialog and thoughts.  Stories are easy... dialog is difficult, character development is for experts only.   : )

 

 

True! Dialogue is such a hard nut to crack! I usually try to ask myself “Would I, or anyone else, ever say this in real life?” I’m a sucker for period pieces, and for me there’s something so cool about knowing that a particular piece of dialogue is a direct quote the figure in question actually said!

[Jared C]

This is nothing crazy, but it's fun to tell:

 

I was on an internship in the North Dakota on the Hell Creek formation this summer. For reference - that stretch of the country is vast prairie interrupted by badlands. The population density is very low - most of the land is tied up in massive, thousand+ acre ranches. Winters in ND get absurdly, apocalyptically cold, keeping the few residents who stick them out rather immobile for months. As you can imagine, the rural isolation and long winters breed strange characters, and it's these characters that dig crews must stay on friendly terms with so that they can have access to the fossils on their land.

 

We got a surprise visit one day from the (son?) of one these ranchers, zipping up in his four wheeler, casually asking us what we were grilling while simultaneously fitting in at least a couple curse words per sentence (in a friendly way). He then offers that we run by the house and shoot cannons. Turns out, he wasn't joking - I, one of the other male interns, and our two male team leads were keen to go (the ladies didn't feel like it). 

 

We drove a surprising distance (still all on their land here) and finally make it to a very rundown, single story (though quite spread out) house. Strange build and dilapidated. Nonetheless, some other folk of the same cut as our hill billy friend were living in it, and out they wheeled a cannon. I shook hands with the first guy - (again, you have to imagine these folks as the North Dakota equivalent of the appalacian hillbillies), and while shaking hands I noticed there were fewer fingers in my hand than there should be. Why was he missing a finger? Who knows. Adds character 

 

It turned out to be a grand time! We set out cardboard cutouts of dinosaurs and stuffed the black powder cannon with everything from rocks to utensils to ball bearings, taking inaccurate shots at the cut outs, while more random stain covered guys came out of the house to watch the show, burping and farting away.

 

The rural North Dakota experience was not that much culture shock, as you get folk like that in East Texas too, but it was certainly a different world from my usual suburban life 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Jared C
typos

[Wrangellian]

You did a fine job of painting that picture, Jared!

[Gareth_]

My story isn't as interesting as the others but it is true and it happened to me.....

I walked outside to my letterbox, opened the flap and found a parcel within, I removed the parcel, took it inside and opened it up.
Within, I found many fossils! 
There is no where to go fossil hunting any where near me

[minnbuckeye]

Here is a trip report from many years ago. I still am surprised I had the nerve to call this guy EARLY on a Sunday morning:

  

Up early, I headed to a quarry site mentioned in some of the research I had done the previous night. It sounded promising on paper. But upon arrival at the quarry , it became apparent visitors were NOT welcomed, unlike what my research said. A typical sign saying "No Trespassing, Violators will be Prosecuted" greeted me.
A sign a little further up the access road was visible so I strolled up to see what it said. "You are now on video surveillance" gave me some butterflies in my stomach. I looked further down the lane and a third sign was present just before the gate into the actual quarry. Of coarse I had to see what it said. To my surprise, the final sign said "Take Another Step, The Bead of My Shotgun is on You". Wow!!! I pity anyone that took that next step.  My steps were backwards, and I retreated to the truck. As I sat there deciding where to go instead, a smaller sign was peaking out of the weeds next to me and it had the owner's name and telephone number on it. Do I dare call this owner  very early on a Sunday morning? Best not to bug a person at 6:30, but I did against my better judgement!!  I think I made the call just to talk to the creator of these unique no trespassing signs. After 4 or 5 rings, long enough for me to second guess my decision to call, someone in a deep baritone voice picked up. I explained who I was and why I was interrupting his weekend. After a long pause he replied that "the government" would stick me with a $20,000 fine if I allowed you into the quarry. Then for the next 10 minutes, he entertained me with what he meant by "the government" and it wasn't good. Quite suddenly, he quit his rampage and exclaimed, give me 5 minutes and I will be down there. I was going to target practice with my pistol anyways. That was a long 5 minutes (30 minutes actually) as I sat in my truck wondering am I going to get to fossil hunt or is he coming to put the bead of his pistol on me. You must know the outcome since I am here to tell the story.  

 

A beat up pickup arrived slightly later than expected and a tall strong shouldered weathered man stepped out without pointing a gun though he carried it in his hand. That was a good sign. He reminded me of Jed Clampett, clothes and all, on the Beverly Hillbillies Show pictured here for you young bucks who may not recognize him.

 

I was "invited" into the scale house as he told me about the quarry's history and his gun collection and a MUCH more about politics. The more he divulged about his political thoughts, the harder he rubbed his hand up and down the gun. No exaggeration, an hour later,  Puc finally said I will show you the quarry's rocks. And away we went. My own private hunting grounds with a guide!! 

                   After 2 hours, I was enjoying myself tremendously but needed to take a break. Leaning against a 6x6x10 ft rock, I took a swig of cold coffee and as I sat the cup down, I noticed something on the underside of this large boulder. It was a beautiful crinoid!!! I just had to extract it from its matrix. I thought this will be easy, as I tried to fire up my ancient cement saw. No go! I anxiously waited 10 minutes and tried to fire it up again. No such luck. So out came my chisels and hammer. After 30 minutes of banging away, Puc came over (he was target practicing) to see what the commotion was. I showed him the specimen I was attempting to release from this boulder. My suspicions were that he had no idea what it was, but he sensed how important it must have been to me. I was instructed to quit pounding and he will be back in a bit. A few minutes later, I hear the roar of an engine and then a LARGE yellow piece of equipment came towards me. It was a jackhammer on wheels, dwarfing my pickup as it approached!! Puc asked me to point out the location on the boulder again and then had me step back. With precision, he whittled that rock down, eventually breaking the fossil free without a bit of damage. What a day!! What a find for me. And most importantly, what a new friendship was made. One lonely man and one fossil freak! I promised him that I would be back.

 

•  

Poste November 17, 2017

Here is my special find: 

 

 This is  Uberocrinus pyriformus, containing the stalk, the crinoid calyx,  AND the long anal tube.

[rocket]

thats a cool thread, hmmm, the craziest story... might be this is not the craziest, but I love to remember it. When I was 18 or 19 years old (long ago...) I collected cretaceous fossils and regular sea-urchins. I loved to find a complete cidaris with spines, but it was impossible to get one. So, a friend of mine and me went to switzerland, Liesberg-Quarry, to get one. First day: nothing, second day, nothing, only parts. We had only two days, so at the end of the second day we pack our goods in the car, eat something and drink water. What happens when you drink too much water..., you have to look around for a place to let it back out. . I found one, stood around, did what has to be done and...., crazy. Found a nearly complete cidaris with spines, fresh cleaned by me... Took a minute to decide how to pick it up, cleaning was not done by water . I had it many years in my collection and gave it away 20 years ago, but every time when I see a cidaris with spines I remember this story...

[Missourian]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:04 AM, minnbuckeye said:

                  After 2 hours, I was enjoying myself tremendously but needed to take a break. Leaning against a 6x6x10 ft rock, I took a swig of cold coffee and as I sat the cup down, I noticed something on the underside of this large boulder. It was a beautiful crinoid!!! I just had to extract it from its matrix. I thought this will be easy, as I tried to fire up my ancient cement saw. No go! I anxiously waited 10 minutes and tried to fire it up again. No such luck. So out came my chisels and hammer. After 30 minutes of banging away,

• Poste November 17, 2017

Here is my special find:

 This is  Uberocrinus pyriformus, containing the stalk, the crinoid calyx,  AND the long anal tube.

 

Really cool story and crinoid.

 

Is that the Burlington Limestone? In my experience, such crinoidal grainstone is *extremely* difficult to work with a hammer.

[Missourian]

My craziest story.... A buddy and I were collecting fossil plants on the rim of a large shale pit in east Kansas. About an hour in, we heard a couple pops in the distance. Glancing over 1000 feet or so to the other side of the pit, we could barely make out a couple dudes shooting rifles. Soon after, when a slug hit the slope next to us, we immediately decided it was time to scoot. I assume they didn't know we were there...