Zolfo Springs - Peace River Field Trip - February 2006

Saturday morning was a little cool and so foggy you had to slow down to 35 miles per hour in some places. But the sun came out, burned the fog away and we had a beautiful day on the river. The level was about one foot higher than last month and a little murkier. We had 33 fossil hunters show up, including one from Texas and one from Ohio, who paid their dues so they could attend. Also, four canoers from the Maritime and Science Technology High school of Miami stopped and spent an hour hunting with us, a great science class for them.

We walked past signs that warned us to watch for snakes and alligators. We walked past primeval looking trees and listened to hawks' shrill calls piercing the still air. The well worn path weaved through the brush following the river's curvature.

The Peace River looks like tea. Fossil hunters that waded out into the river found it to be shallow but not lazy. You feel the bottom through your rubber shoes - shoes to protect your feet from broken glass and sharp rocks - in order to find a gravel or sand bottom. Gravel is where fossils are found and the most graveled areas were quickly staked out like mining claims in a gold rush.

Screens with bright colored pool noodles attached to them were being filled with shovels full of gravel, shaken in order to shift the sand from the pea-sized gravel and then diligently searched for prehistoric bones, teeth and shells.

"Here is a lemon shark's tooth," gasped a fossil hunter. "I found a rib fragment," countered another passionate rock hound. Sandwich bags, mesh diver's bags, plastic jars - anything that could hold a fossil - were being filled with treasures.

What were the finds of the day?

Fred Hendershot recovered a bison tooth still in the jaw bone. It made everyone shovel faster and talk less.

Someone who was not having much luck suddenly held up an arrowhead. It was now obvious that not only fossils are in the Peace River but artifacts too.

The field trip was a success and everyone came home with a horde of fossil sharks' teeth, rib fragments, bone pieces, turtle shells, ray pavement teeth and even a few alligator teeth - the sign did warn us to watch out for them, didn't it?

Considered one of the best field trips - although limited to the dry season - the Peace River did not disappoint anyone who made the trek.

- Submitted by Fred Hendershot