Peace River, Brownville, Fl

[Mango]

I have been hunting in the Peace River several times from Gardner to south of Arcadia. This time I decided to try the Brownville Park ramp.

The ramp is in the Brownville Park Campground. The campground was very quiet. There were only a few sites with anyone using them. Daytripper parking had only a few cars. The campground and ramp area were very clean.

Headed up river as I always do searching for spots. Nice section of river. Mostly shallow with the occasional deeper hole. The mile or two that I headded up river, I could always see the bottom, even in the deeper holes. I tried out sandbars in the middle of the river. This method has done well for fossil hunting with kids in the past. I don't usually find big pieces, but enough teeth to keep kids interested. This time I didn't do very well in the middle of the river. There wasn't much of a gravel layer. I kept hitting the limestone and not coming up with any goodies.

Moved upriver some more to a narrow turning section. This had crerated deep holes next to steep banks. Decided to give digging in the bank a try. The gravel I was sifting was small, and so were the teeth. I did get a lot though. Sometimes a dozen per shovel full screened. I knew I was not going to find the big meg here, but when you have devoted so much effort into a hole, I didn;t want to have to start a new one.

The large bag of chips that I had brought to help keep the 4yr old fossiler quiet was almost done, so headed back to the ramp. On the way back, I did some exploratory quick digs. Tried areas where I could see piles of medium gravel from other fossilers. When I tried to dig nearby, I would quickly hit the hard bottom.

Fun day especially considering the foul weather. Down in the river is a nice place to hide from cold winds.

I did get my best aligator tooth, a piece of horse tooth, and found lots of stingray pavement teeth, turtle shell pieces, and bones. Not the big dugong bones, that I usually find near Gardner.

Here are a few pics of my finds. New camera too, so still playing with the settings.

I took a picture of the gator tooth that came out clearer, but had used my finger as a size reference. I'm laughing because I only just read that is not cool.

Brownville Park would be a fun fossil vacation destination.

[Guest bmorefossil]

ewww gator no one likes gator unless they are drinking "G" in that case i like it because i am indeed drinking "G" nice finds

[Auspex]

Great report; details like "quiet campground" and "out of chips" added a lot to my enjoyment. Thanks

[Mango]

Great report; details like "quiet campground" and "out of chips" added a lot to my enjoyment. Thanks

I am sorry I didn't check washroom and showers of the campground. For those thinking of staying there, I will stop and check nex time I go by.

We call chips "A Big Bag of Silence" on our expeditions.

The Peace river always produces. Great experience for the kids.

[mommabetts]

Sounds like you had a great time, nice finds.

[Guest Nicholas]

That's A LOT of teeth, you sound like you had loads of fun!

Now to my astonishment I found something else rare and exciting within your post... a ruler not made in china!

[AeroMike]

I have only foud a couple of gator teeth but I like those as well as sharks teeth.

[Mango]

That's A LOT of teeth, you sound like you had loads of fun!

Now to my astonishment I found something else rare and exciting within your post... a ruler not made in china!

That is funny you noticed. I have had that ruler since I was in grade school in Canada. Approximately 30 years.

[Matt]

Great teeth! Thanks for the info on going upstream at Brownville. That is exactly what I intend to do this weekend. We also plan to go upstream from Gardner to check out the mouth of Charlie Creek and maybe get my mask and snorkel on to check some deeper holes. Sounds like you had a great time and found some good stuff.

[bone digger]

sounds like you had a great time, thanks for the pics

[worthy 55]

Great finds.

[Mango]

Going upstream for me is not based on locations. I do it, so I can be lazy on the way back to the ramp. There is enough current to actually avoid paddling back.

I have seen the results of snorkeling while in the Gardner area. Another hunter had some very nice pieces. I will wait for it to warm up a bit. Hopefully that wont coincide with the water level rising.

Good Luck.

[Mango]

Great teeth! Thanks for the info on going upstream at Brownville. That is exactly what I intend to do this weekend. We also plan to go upstream from Gardner to check out the mouth of Charlie Creek and maybe get my mask and snorkel on to check some deeper holes. Sounds like you had a great time and found some good stuff.

Mark,

I am thinking I might hit the river on Sunday. Not sure what section yet, but watch for a white Gheenoe. You will here us coming. I usually bring 2-4 kids and a dog that are not stealthy hunters.