The Winona History Center Fossil Talk & Hunt was a lot of fun, but exhausting! I brought about 30 Winona County maps with me for the Museum Gift shop plus a few Fillmore County Fossil Hunt maps just in case – which I was glad I did. 🙂
I was there early and setup the tables provided for show and tell material.
Overview of the Tables.
Common fossils plus a Minnesota geode, Drusy quartz and a cold water agate for minerals.
Some examples of jewelry made from “junk” fossils including two walking sticks.
Very basic prep tools.
Patty from Owatonna had emailed me the week before about hunting together and she and her friend Mike attended. This is part of an email note she sent me, “Just wanted to thank you again for sharing your knowledge, favorite hunting grounds, & your inspiring spirit of adventure!” 😀
It was a nice talk geared directly to the participants with lots of time for Q&A – we went overtime in fact. I sold some Fillmore County hunting maps and the Museum Shop sold some Winona County Fossil Hunting maps that are also good to find the Amish Community and get started touring there – Yoder’s Country Store (Yoder is the family and the store is named Hillside Country Store).
Given that it was a noon talk on a Wednesday, I didn’t have any expectations for a hunt. But hunt we did until the thunder, lightening and rain came in around 5 pm!
And at our first site we were greeted by this big guy, I’m thinking a 5 footer – Bull Snake as I saw no rattles.
Bull Snake no rattles but plenty big and aggressive.
We were talking so much that I really didn’t take many pictures.
And the last place we hit actually turned out to be in Olmsted County – where the U of M brings their students by the buss load and Whitewater State Park directs their visitors to fossil hunt, on #9. And as we were finding fossils our one total newbie became the recipient. But at the last stop she found her own stunning Lisospira that she was very happy with! She also makes jewelry, so perhaps we will see what she does with it.
And Patty found this lovely Bellerophon! So I am not crazy, yes we do have Bellerophons in Minnesota – I was told we didn’t but I’ve found two now and Patty confirmed that she has found them before also.
Bellerophon sp.
The ticks are bad this year and I did share my secret on how I deal with tick season – cheap dandruff shampoo not only as a shampoo but also as a body wash. Seems to keep them crawling long enough to feel them and pick them off before they embed. Both Patty and I pulled ticks off and probably the rest when they got home.
We ended with hugs all around, except for Mike who just extended his hand, and were on the road just minutes before the storm hit.
And Patty and I are planning an Iowa hunting trip, so we’ll see how that goes!
