Penn Dixie Dig with the Experts 2024

[A.C.]

June 8-10 I finally got to check a box off of my fossil hunting wishlist by participating in Penn Dixie's Dig with the Experts (DWTE) yearly event. 

As a first-time visitor to Penn Dixie, I was unsure what to expect so I wanted to dedicate a post to my experience and hopefully help inform anyone else on the fence for future trips.

DWTE Event Background:
Penn Dixie located just outside of Buffalo, New York is a former cement quarry turned fossil park and nature preserve. Once a year the park brings in heavy machinery and excavates some of the more productive rock layers and allows the rock to weather for a few months before the event. From what was told the rock comes from the Windom Shale and primarily they are exposing the Smoke Creek Trilobite Bed.

The park brings in a team of experts, who are there to assist in answering questions, helping to identify fossils, and providing some tips and tricks. Additionally, Penn Dixie staff are on sight to also aid in helping participants. Another helpful add-on to the event was there were people with rock saws that anyone could bring a fossil-bearing rock to and get trimmed down to a more manageable size. I am unsure if the park ever allows the general public to bring in power tools but at least for the DWTE event, we were told to only use hand tools. The park does offer rental equipment if need be - though I strongly suggest bringing your own tools.

Lodging:
For lodging I stayed in a private room Airbnb in the Abbot McKinley Area (North of Lackawanna), the location was perfect just 15 minutes from Penn Dixie. There are some hotels/motels that are closer, but really anything in that general area should be perfect for a stay... traffic was super minimal. In that general area there are a handful of restaurants and a few parks. I enjoyed walking around Buffalo Harbor State Park (free to enter).

Tickets:
Penn Dixie is a pay-to-enter fossil park. The DWTE event has special tickets that are higher than the normal cost to enter. They allowed single-day tickets or a weekend pass for a bit of a discount compared to buying both single days. The website recommends prepurchasing well in advance as they expect to sell out (I purchased a few months in advance)

Tools:
I packed two wrecking bars (~30 inches, and ~50 inches), a sledgehammer, a four-pound hand sledgehammer, and two chisels (a standard 1-inch blade chisel and a 4-inch blade chisel) Despite what I packed, the only tools I used were the 30-inch wrecking bar, the hand sledgehammer, and the smaller chisel. It would have been nice to have a shovel of some sort to help clear off some of the overburden from the piles of rock, though I was able to make do with what I had.

Other Necessities:
Aside from the obvious sunscreen, water, snacks, etc. Some other necessities include:

1. Tinfoil for wrapping fossils (helps to keep fossils padded in transport as well as keep fragile pieces all contained together for gluing later.)
2. Cart/Wagon - I brought a large plastic storage container and did see others with cardboard flats, though the majority of people (experts included) brought a wagon which makes transporting tools and fossils much easier. 

 

Saturday, June 8 (9:00 AM - 4:30 PM)

Saturday was the busiest day, it began with checking in starting around 9:00 AM, a quick safety briefing around 9:15 AM, and then being released to the piles to begin hunting. There were three groups of piles all supposedly containing the same quality of rock. The rock piles were roughly 10 feet in diameter and a couple of feet high. At least on the pile I was at the larger blocks of rock to split all had fossils visible on the outside. Being a first-time Penn Dixie visitor I was excited at the sight of any fossil with a preserved shell compared to my normal molds from my home state of Pennsylvania. I quickly made friends with the couple hunting beside me and found plenty of trilobite fragments, horn corals, and brachiopods. The first few hours of the day were mostly spent splitting blocks and having success with some splits exposing enrolled trilobites. As the day progressed the larger easier-to-split rocks dwindled down and I began doing a combination of surface collecting and splitting. My highlight find was a prone Eldredgeops and his counterpart just by moving around some rock with my hands.

I did overhear some people mentioning how this year's rock was a bit more difficult to split as compared to the previous years, though being a first-timer I had no point of reference. Saturday's official dig ended at 4:00 though participants could stay in the park until 4:30 - though we had to leave the DWTE piles. I decided to stay and while it was fun to peek around a bit, it became evident that unless you plan to dig out massive chunks of rock yourself, the only real collecting you could do would be to walk along the small creek and look along the banks, or surface collect from previous years DWTE piles. 30 minutes goes by quickly especially when carrying around a ton of finds from the day in a large container.

Example of a complete/ near complete Eldredgeops roller visible weathering out of the rock.

Sunday, June 9 (9:00 AM - 4:00 PM)
Sunday still had a large number of people, though there definitely was a smaller crowd. In addition, there seemed to be some people who came that had not been there on Saturday. Again the day started with a check-in and safety briefing. There was some concern about weather so the safety briefing brought that up. The park similar to how pools work will close for a period of time if lightning strikes within 10 miles. Thankfully we were able to make it the whole day without that occurring. 

Example pile from Sunday. The majority of the bigger blocks by Saturday afternoon were all split down to about the size shown in photo.

I decided to choose a different pile group to change things up from what I had done on Saturday. I had some initial luck in the first hour with surface collecting (I was able to find a few enrolled trilobites) When I began splitting rock I did find another prone Eldredgeop with three rollers on the same rock that will need to be prepped out. Another highlight find was what I suspect to be a Bellacartwrightia. Unfortunately, that find was a surface find and so I was unable to find the counterpart which would have had some of the genial spine. Hopefully, it will prep out nicely. I also found a gastropod which I am excited about. Someone found what they believe to be a carpoid (supposedly the 7th? Carpoid of Penn Dixie to date)

Suspected Bellacartwrightia I found while surface collecting

 

Prone Eldredgeops.

 
I ended the day moving to the last of the pile groups and while I did not find much there I did make a new friend who is also located in Pennsylvania - we exchanged contact information and shared some info on sites nearby to us.

Monday, June 10 (9:00 AM - 12:30 PM)
Monday was technically not a DWTE day, though it was open to anyone who is a member of Penn Dixie or participated in the DWTE event. While Saturday and Sunday probably had 150-200 people, on Monday I counted around 20-25. I spent the day in a mixture of the first and second pile groups from my Saturday/Sunday exploring and was able to find a few more enrolled trilobites. I just stuck around for the morning as it seemed the finds were becoming less and less frequent and I still had a long drive ahead. 

On Monday, the park took down the ropes designating the DWTE piles, and the majority of people there were still picking through them, though there was a small group trying their luck digging out a bench in the area by the creek.

I met another hunter who was from Canada and was giving me advice on getting a prep lab setup someday. He also mentioned what I had overheard from others' conversations that this year was not nearly as productive as previous years.

Takeaways/ Closing Thoughts
I am extremely glad I was able to make the trip out and was grateful to have spent the full weekend plus part of Monday. The event is well worth the time and money in my opinion for both newtimer fossil hunters as well as experienced collectors. While it is a bit of a gamble in terms of what rock the park decides to dig up to expose, fossils are literally everywhere. If you go home empty handed it is on you.  My takeaway haul is a copy paper box full of complete trilobites wrapped in tinfoil waiting for prep someday. I was also able to grab a box worth of partially complete trilobites, brachiopods, and horn corals to practice prepping on in the future. 

Trilobites that may be complete but require prep to determine like the one shown above were a common find.

From what I experienced: If you can only make it for one day Saturday is by far the best day to go as you will have access to the fresh rock ready to be split. Sunday was a fraction as productive as Saturday and Monday was a fraction as productive as Sunday. 

[stats]

Great report!  I went last year and had a great time.  We found quite a few trilobites.  I have I nice one that needs some prep work.  I would definitely encourage people to go.  It a long drive, but well worth the time and money/

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Yoda]

Some really nice finds

And comprehensive trip report 

[Neanderthal Shaman]

Beautiful bugs!