A Budding Paleontologist!
Being a grandmother and a substitute teacher, well, let’s just say I have a heart for kids. A couple from the Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) contacted me earlier this week about taking their six year old son on a fossil hunt. Like many little boys his age, he loves dinosaurs! The Houston Nature Center had a fossil hunt planned for Saturday evening with a presentation before hand—and they have a real Triceratops horn! Perfect for kids!
They had just enough time before the HNC program for me to take them on an excellent kids hunt at two of my favorite spots for close to the road, clean, quick hunts with guaranteed finds.
1. The beach hunt on Cty. 8 just 7 miles from Spring Valley.
2. The Hwy. 52 roadcut and drywash just below Fountain.
We started at my place in Spring Valley where I showed them the fossils in the “Bev Formation”–retaining wall. That way they had a clue what they were looking for in the way of fossils.
High water.
I jumped in my truck with my collie dog, Gia, and they followed me to the “beach”. This is actually a rock bar on a river just east of Spring Valley. I consider it perfect for kids and families because you can park on the gravel, little used road and walk 10′ and start picking up fossils! I consider it a flip-flop and shorts hunt as there is no wild parsnip and few burning nettles.
The rock bar (not sandy) is beautiful and quiet with only the songs of the birds and the rushing of the creek. The creek was high because of all the rain, but there were clear puddles at the back that he could play in. I consider this perfect for a family because the fossil hounds can pick to their hearts content while other family members can trout fish or just bring a lawn chair and sit on the bank with their feet in the water or go wading.
They hadn’t brought a bag to collect fossils, but I had my backpack. The little boy started finding
“Beachcombing”
fossils immediately and filling the bag. He had a blast! He found fossilized gastropods, bryozoa, brachiopods, a cephalopod, numerous hash plates, and crinoids! He waded in the clean puddles, threw rocks in the river and in general was a boy! We left in a half hour or so with a full backpack that dad unloaded into the trunk of his car.
Off we went to Fountain still on County 8 to the Hwy. 52 cut. And the little boy has good eyes! He picked up what I believe is a trilobite cephalon (head) for his first rock! He had fun breaking rock and in general just had a good time. We spent maybe twenty minutes there and dad unloaded a half a backpack into the trunk and off they went to the Houston Nature Center!
Breaking rocks and discovery!
They were planning on staying overnight, so I suggested Loken’s Sawmill Inn as being clean, neat and reasonably priced in Houston. And Niagara Cave in Harmony for the next day. Niagara Cave has lots of fossils embedded in the walls besides having a display of local fossils. A wonderful rock shop and even a sluice where you can pan for gems and fossils at a modest price. I also mentioned the 5′ cephalopod at the Harmony Visitor Center and the sinkhole display just down the bike trail from the center.
I think this was about as perfect a kids hunt you can have to introduce fossil hunting in a safe, never boring manner for the little ones. And he has fossils older than the dinosaurs to take home with him and show his friends!
