A while back Raggedy Man and I got to chatting on thefossilforum.com about fossil hunting spots in southwest Wisconsin, which I couldn’t help him with, and then fossil hunting here in Bluff Country. He contacted me this week about coming over and hunting and today was the day.
Road construction in the northern states is a running headache and Raggedy Man ran into it, so we got a late start. He’d only hunted the Ordovician one other time, so I walked him around my fossil gardens to train his eye to what we would be looking for.
Time was limited, so I gave him a tour of sites on 8 & 5, we stopped and broke some rock finding some trilobite molts, then I took him to a site that I only share with TFF friends.
Raggedy Man on the rocks! š
We toured a few more sites, including Rifle Hill, and then went to a spot I know of over near Mystery Cave. Normally this is a dry wash, but it has been a wet year here.
Raggedy Man decided to put the truck in 4 wheel drive and away we went!
He brought me back home and we continued chatting and showed him around the “Bev Formation” as Auspex calls it.Ā š
The “Bev Formation”. š
He and his wife have horses and I told him about Forestville State Park being the premiere horse park in the Midwest. We got to talking fishing as Bluff Country has 750 miles of trout streams and rivers and my property borders one. And I think he was duly impressed with the number of accessible fossil hunting spots available.
He left with maps and my ID sheet and more spots than he could hunt in a week I think – and yes there are more. And I invited Raggedy Man and his wife back to camp by the creek if they want and go fossil hunting as much as they could handle – but I think he was kind of torn between the fishing and fossil hunting. Here in Bluff Country, you can do both at the same time.
A new fossil friend and a half a bag of fossils; it was a good day.Ā š
Raggedy Man responds:
“I had a wonderful time meeting with you and the amazing adventure that followed! You are correct;there are more sites than I could hunt in one day, but I’m definitely up for the challenge…maybe lol. I left around 7 or so and arrived back at home around 10:30. I will have to bring a map next time as the sheer amount of information you fed me was just too much to retain, but I do have a good idea of the area.
Again, thank you for your time and willingness to share your experience and knowledge with me and for showing me the spots you and Caleb hunted. As I said before that privileged information shall not be shared with anyone except my wife when I bring her next time.
Best regards,
Raggedy Man”
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