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Here are two links to posts dealing with how to post pictures on Black River Fossils forums.
1. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by ditchweezil
2. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by Daryl
BRM, that's exactly where I saw them. I live in Bowie and belong to the MGS. All of our meeting are at the Bowie Community center - as you seem to be familiar with. "MB" are the initials of the person who brought them in, and usually has some new ones at each meeting.
How long ago did you collect at the Bowie site? When I started collecting, the one corner just below the house was where the major excavation was, but it was all collapsed. Others tried in other spots but those collapsed as well. I have only a few specimens from that locale. It sucks because I live just down the street from it and can't really collect there anymore.
Daryl.
I collected Bowie when there was only one spot open, long before anyone started tunneling and before there was a science center. I've been at this a while. Years ago I was very active in the fossiling community and I was a member in many clubs from N.J. to Florida. One local club became the podium for an egomaniac who liked to boast to a captured audience about things he never did. This particular individual was buying teeth off of C.S. at the Lee Creek pit, taking them in the mine, and claiming to find them. The kicker was one day when he was late and C.S. was offering a killer 6+ inch tooth for sale at over $1000. At that time it was an unbelievably high price. I had purchased a decent 5 3/4 inch tooth a couple of weeks prior for $100. Like I said, a long time ago. At any rate this individual comes out of the pit at the end of the day showing the tooth he found to everyone. Several of us confronted him and his pathetic excuse was that he didn't want his wife to find out that he bought a tooth. The wife was never around fossil collectors, he could have put the tooth in his car. The excuse was lame. Later I was visiting C.S. and saw a video of teeth that this individual had bought and then found in Lee Creek. He also claimed to have found an associated set of teeth in the pit. He didn't find the set, but helped excavate the site and paid for at least half the teeth. I helped excavate the site also. Someone else found the teeth, but I give him credit for realising that there was a set there. That wasn't enough for him. According to the by-laws of the club this type of behavior was not to be tolerated, especially for an officer. The club did nothing and I got tired of being trapped for one to two hours every meeting listening to a bunch of bull that had nothing to do with the fossils I was there to see. I got disgusted with the whole club membership and dropped the club. Due to work pressure I dropped most of the other clubs as well and I sort of faded from the fossil scene. I was a founding member of the MGS and the other club also. So the moral of this story is that I've been around a long time, seen a lot of things, discovered a new fossil species ,collected Giant Cement when I could go any day of the week and see no one, collected the phosphate pits in Polk County Florida, met more scientists than I can remember, and collected Green Mill Run when anything less than 20 sweet C. carcharias was a crappy day. Blah, blah, blah. It's starting to sound like a Jonny Cash song. At any rate I sort of fell off the fossil map but now I'm back! At least I'm trying to come back. I showed MB how to clean up his teeth and he has gotten a few teeth from me in the past. He dives with me on occasion and I also dive with a couple of guys from Florida that are known in the fossil community. I was actually in the tornado in Laplata with MB after a day of diving in the Potomac. I thought it was a blast, but he didn't enjoy it too much. I'm looking forward to putting my boat in the water and my tanks on my back. I'm also looking forward to meeting new collectors and collecting new sites, new states, and maybe even collecting overseas. Sorry to go on, but I'm working on a report that is really boring and I needed a break.
BRM, I remember you from the MGS meetings. Of course MB brings his usual wares for show/sale, and I actually enjoy buying some stuff that I know I'd probably never to get to find myself (far away places). I remember several years ago (~1996), you and MB brought your dive equipment down to Matoaka during our club picnic. I remember MB found a few nice large makos, larger than I had/have ever found from areas like Plum Point or north of there. I believe MB traded them to Dick Jr. for something. Boy, was the owner of the cottages ticked at you guys (unjustly I might add) because in his wacked mind, he thought you guys were finding way too many teeth, and that you should leave some for his visitors. I'm glad we don't have our picnics there anymore.
As for the egomaniac, I too am turned off. I'm not into bragging about my collection/knowledge etc, not that it's that vast anyhow, but I enjoy bringing stuff to the club meetings for show and tell, and to ask others for help with fossil ID's. I think you may have helped me ID a juvenile deer tooth not to long ago.
I also love to explore and find new areas. I've been blessed in that I've found three nice spots where I can tell no one has ever collected, because there's no evidence of digging. I've even found a spot in MD that is producing Eocene teeth (Hexanchus, whale shark, otodus, etc.) like the fauna at Muddy Creek. I showed the stuff to Dr. "W" at one of the last MGS meetings. I need to give him some dirt samples so he can have his folks look for microfossils or something. I'm not good at identifying the layers, and being partially color blind, I can't accurately describe the color of the clays/sands. I need to figure out what the Marlboro clay formation is like becuase he needed to know if I was collecting above or below it.
Anyhow, it's nice to have experienced folks such as yourslef, and so many others contribute to DW's threads. This info is free, timely, educational, etc. In the last few weeks I've learned how to better clean teeth, fix waders, stop nettle stings, etc.
I think you're right about MB not liking the tornado experience. He told me the story before, and I can't imagine sitting at the drive-thru of a KFC as a category 4 or 5 tornado bares down on you leveling and destroying everything in its path. What a day for you guys to end your collecting that day.
Yes, that was me at the cottages. I tried to explain that the guests at the beach weren't in 8 to 12 feet of water collecting teeth that would need a hurricane to migrate back up on the beach. The teeth there on the beach are primarily coming from the cliff. Oh Well! There's nothing wrong with being excited and/or proud of what you find or even buy. It's natural to want to share your experiences with other like minded individuals. I have broken the surface after a great dive and done a big yah-hoo to whomever I was diving with on several occasions. It's a six inch meg tooth reaction that I have not been able to curtail. A personal weakness of mine is that I can't abide pathalogic liars, nor can I deal with being constantly exposed to that kind of behavior, and given the choice I will avoid being around them. Oh yes, the deer tooth, guilty again. Yes that was me. I believe the Eocene site you're talking about may be the one on the north side of the road, with the creek farther down that flows into the big river, (is that cryptic or what?) that is Nanjemoy formation and it is definitely above the marlboro Clay. There's a Miocene site nearby on the south side of the road with just a touch of Nanjemoy showing on top of it that I got an Otodus out of. The Miocene site is the one that got E.W. barred from ever collecting with me again. I took him there and told him to keep it to himself and the next time I went there the spot had about a dozen people trashing the place. I casually asked how they had found out about it and they pointed the finger. I could care less if someone finds a site but I don't like people expecting me to do all the leg work and research and then lead them to a pristine site without reciprocity. Another of my personality flaws. The Marlboro Clay is, for all practical purposes, devoid of fossils. Some deep cores farther south and east have had a very few shell impressions in them. The Marlboro is typically lighter, in some places almost cream colored, than the sediments both below and above it. There is an excellent exposure of the Marlboro Clay farther down Muddy Creek than the dig site, I wish I had gotten pictures of it. The bad thing about the tornado was that I lost my dive bag and the half-dozen sweet Eastover crabs that were in it. Two were close to four inches across. Next tornado I'm holding on tight to my fossils.
Bingo on the Eocene locale. EW showed me the Miocene site upstream where he and another collector/member had been digging finding all kinds of neat stuff. I went once with my young sons and realized it was a bit too precarious to dig and risk cave-ins - matter of fact one of the guys told me that once they were down there with another collector and it caved in on the guy and buried him head first out to his knees, somehow they pulled him out by the boots with only a sprain in his leg. There's nothing much left of that site.
I've looked on the south side of the road for the Miocene/nanjemoy, but never found it. Maybe I need to follow the ravine a bit further. I think I was looking low closer to the stream than up higher in the wall/bank. The book I have that talks about this site was descriptive enough for me to find it.
I remember the Marlboro Clay from Muddy Creek. I walked down stream of the collecting site/bridge a few times with MF to scope out new collecting areas and I remember that fairly thick layer of softer clay. I'll have to check for it the next time I go back to my other Eocene spot. Speaking of which did you ever find any Hexanchus, whale sharks, or cookie cutters? I found a few broken specimens sifting the stream sediments and was surprised because it was a bit reminiscent of Muddy Creek, but everything here seems beat-up, broken, or worn. Still neat to find different stuff.