Category: Client Stories
The Halloween Monsoon of 2021
The rain is a Fossil hunters best friend in the Lowcountry of South Carolina when it comes to surface and creek hunting. For the creeks, the rain means rushing waters and fresh erosion of the fossil layer. For surface hunting, the rain brings fossils to the surface by pounding away the sediments that have them trapped and hidden just beneath the surface. The forecast showed rain, but as the day went on we all sat and wondered if and when the rain would actually arrive. The sky was filled with dark clouds and the wind was howling, but by mid afternoon we had barely seen a drizzle.
Nightfall came and we descended on the site in search of ancient treasures only to find that the rain had not came like we had hoped. We proceeded to hunt anyways, hopeful that the rain would eventually come – and it did. We were hard at work carving away at the layer when suddenly the rain began falling with a vengeance. Within minutes we were all drenched from head to toe. The site began to flood, the water pooled along the surface of sun-baked clay that had not seen rainfall in nearly a month – and we rejoiced!
The next few days were amazing! We lead our clients through the freshly washed fields for 3 days, picking up Fossil after Fossil. One client took home 6 Megalodon teeth in addition to a variety of other amazing fossils including a gem-quality Isurus retroflexus (a type of Mako shark tooth). All in all, over a thousand fossils were collected within just 2 days time and the wait for the rain began again.
The Palmetto team report – As always, happy hunting and stay tuned for our next adventure! Make sure to subscribe to our blog!
Skye – The Digger ❤
The Megalodon of Dreams
It was a beautiful sunny day in the field and we had Dana Fleck’s Photography out with us to do a photo shoot for the website. Dana had brought her 6 year old son Kayden along with her for the shoot since they were only stopping through town on their way back home to another state. Kayden had spent the entire walk into the site telling all of us how he was going to find his 6″ tooth that day. We all chuckled a bit as we knew how rare that size tooth could be for that site.
Dana did a wonderful shoot for us (definitely recommend her hands down!) and decided to stick around for some fossiling. Shortly after she started to dig, Kayden walked over to an area where the layer was shelfed off and only about 8″ deep below surface level. He sat down and called for Joshua Basak to come over and dig with him and Joshua obliged. What happened next was almost unbelievable!
Joshua and Kayden were sitting side by side in the dirt, both armed with their small 28″ shovels, blades slicing through layer and suddenly time stopped – the sound of metal hitting a blade! We all heard it, we all knew that sound so well. Kayden turns and looks at Josh and says “Is that my tooth?!” to which Josh replied, “Yes it is!” and the excavation began.
Within minutes we were all surrounding the area watching as Skye extracted the tooth for Kayden and Dana, careful not to damage the tooth. Sounds of excitement grew from the group and with each wipe of the dirt away from the blade, the tooth grew larger and larger. Suddenly it was revealed and everyone gasped in awe at what lay before them – Kayden and Joshua had simultaneously struck the blade of a 6.25″ Megalodon. From within the silence came shouts of excitement and the sound of Kayden’s voice – “God put that there for me” he exclaimed. A moment that brought tears to the eyes of each and every one of us. A moment that we witnessed a young boy find the tooth of his lifetime and watched his dreams come true!
Check out some of the awesome pictures of that day below and be sure to check out Dana’s work at http://www.danafleckphotography.com
