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Hunting for shark teeth at Lee Creek... Its so great, but Where do I begin? With catching up with friends in the parking lot, the awesome weather, the expectation of megalodon teeth on pedestals, or the electric excitement in the air from the other collectors? All of those are good ways to start, so pick whichever one you like the best and think about it for a minute if you want an intro. Else read on, because I'm ready to talk about the RACK!
The white hats told us at the beginning of the day that the new area is really good but it needs to weather. As soon as I heard that, I decided to hit the old stuff. When the whistle blew to begin the day, the footrace began with me in the middle of the pack. One by one, other collectors slowed down to hunt spots that looked good to them. I was scanning, walking, and picking up teeth as I wandered towards the old area in the back. Every spot I looked in was loaded with well camouflaged teeth. The first time I looked at my watch the day was half over and I hadn't even come close to the far side of the area. Already my pockets sagged with their serrated contents. I barely took the time to eat to make the most of the collecting day.
The hunting area was enormous. Huge. Gigantic. Gargantuan. REALLY BIG! Just before 2 o'clock rolled around I had just barely reached the far side of the area and I had to turn around to be back at the bus by 3. It took me an hour and 5 minutes to get from one side to the other and I moved fast. Completely drained of energy and laden with teeth, I barely made it up the ramp. Still reeling from my success, I saw the group of people who made it back before me. Everyone was excitedly chirping about how great the hunt was. I talked to numerous people who had something really nice, and I saw a lot of killer megalodon teeth! Even considering the success of our hunt, I am 100% positive there are loads of nice teeth out there still waiting to be found. I know on the far side, there were only two other collectors besides myself. Entire hills were left completely unsearched. This huge area can support lots of collecting, even with weeks between rainfall. I'm looking forward to seeing what else comes out this season!
Thanks to PCS for once again allowing the Friends of the Aurora Fossil Museum and other clubs to collect fossils on their property. They don't have to let us in, but they do and I appreciate it. A lot of people had a really great time this weekend and it will undoubtedly continue throughout the season.
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Location
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Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA
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| Member | ditchweezil |
| Date Added | 10/2/2007 |
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| This is the pit from the ramp. The weeds in the picture to the right of the reclamation are about half-way across the collectable area. |
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| I did pretty well today. |
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| Would you look at this Yorktown formation??? It still makes my shovel twitch because I didn't have time to dig. I ran into this pile of whale vertebrae about an hour into my rampage. |
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| This was the second megalodon I found. The first was a smaller one that I saw was broken first. Can you imagine my disappointment when I pulled up the tooth to see it lacking the right root lobe? |
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| A great shot of a mako in the Yorktown. I spent a lot of time in the Yorktown today so I found a lot of Yorktown teeth - Modern Tigers, Makos, and Bulls. The tooth is just under 2 inches in length. |
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| Another nice Mako in the Yorktown. The pit collecting area is so big that I'm sure there are a lot more teeth out there this exposed. |
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| This little megalodon was sticking out of the side of a little washout in another mound of Yorktown. The other root lobe was chipped, but the blade is really sweet. |
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| This is probably the most perfect tooth I found during my Fall 2007 Friends' trip into the Lee Creek mine in Aurora NC. It was almost completely exposed at the bottom of a washout of Pungo formation.... |
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With all the success I had during my Aurora trip this weekend, I didn't find a complete Yorktown megalodon until I was walking back to the bus at the end of the day. I was at the top of a mound of Yorktown and Pungo mix, and this tooth was just to the right of a knee high ridge of material. There were some weeds growing near it that hid it from view of the other side of the ridge. Some other collector had walked the other side of the ridge, but didn't hit this side. The person walked wi... |
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I met up with rivrdigr at Greensmill Run for some pre-Lee Creek fossil hunting fun. I had lousy luck, but the digr did much better. Maybe one day he'll post again and you can see for yourself how much he scores.
At one spot where we were hunting, we met up with a gorgeous copperhead. He must have just shed his skin because his colors were really vivid. He was so docile that he posed for photos for us before slithering on his way. They really do blend in well, and we ... |
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| Barely exposed, I saw just the center of the enamel of this beautiful Chubutensis in a washout through the middle of a big pile of that black, powdery Pungo. The edge was kind of steep though, so I couldn't stand far enough away to get a ground shot without falling backwards down the hill. ... |
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| I found this crossing a mound of Pungo towards the end of the day on the way back to the bus. I was getting worried I wouldn't find one. I don't find these often in SC, so I like to find one when I go to Lee Creek.... |
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This is the first megalodon I found on my Aurora trip. I found it 10 minutes after the hunt started and I was too excited to slow down to take a ground photo. Sorry. ... |
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This is the sweetest of all the makos I found at Lee Creek today and I found a lot of makos today, probably more than any other type of tooth even tiger shark teeth! Lots of other people had a lot of nice makos, too. I spent a lot of time in the Yorktown, but I crossed a lot of Pungo, too.
The hill of Yorktown I found this on had three rows of footprints when I arrived, but this was about 3 feet away from one of the trails that the person before me left. ... |
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It was time again to make the journey to North Carolina for the Fall Aurora hunt. I could hardly sleep the night before , I was up at 3:30 and ready to go . On the way to the mine I had a feeling that I was forgetting something, then my cell phone rang, it was DW , he was suppose to ride with me from the hotel (DOH!). Luckily he had his truck with him and we all made it to the parking lot on time.
The collecting area this season is huge! You would have a hard time trying to w... |
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I found this tooth stuck in a block of limestone, its flat side completely exposed. I have never found a tooth in that stuff before, and today was the first time I didn't bring a rock hammer and chisel. I figured - why lug the extra useless weight? Poor decision...
How did I get it out, you ask? I put on the safety glasses and went samurai on the block with my shovel. It required a great deal of concentration, but I popped the tooth out in less than 5 minutes with no... |
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