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Meg MawL © 1997 - 2003.
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Fossilized Shark Teeth on the Internet |
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| Before you read or use the following information, you MUST read the Notice of Copyright:
Copyright and the Liability Statement: Liability In reading and using the information presented on this and other MegMawL pages, you agree to the terms and conditions set forth by these documents and are legally bound by them whether you read them or not. |
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The information presented below is intentionally incomplete with only examples shown. The complete version is available to our Premier Customers and contains information about and directions to - 59 of our favorite collection sites. More to be added later. Be sure to read the NOTES at the end of the table.
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| Fossil Collecting Sites in North and South Carolina can be grouped into 4 categories: |
| PUBLIC | Land Site | Public Access within walking distance of Public Parking. |
| BOAT | Land Site- River Bank |
Public Access with a boat. Walking access would cross private land unless you follow the river bank which is very difficult in some places. |
| SCUBA | Underwater Site- River Bed |
Public Access with SCUBA or Snorkle gear. Access from the bank is possible in some areas, but a boat is recommended. |
| PRIVATE | Land Site | Private Property - Owner permission required. |
| The # corresponds to a numbered spot on the Enlarged Chart that is available to Premier MegMawL Customers. See also Notes at the end of the Fossil Collecting Sites Table |
| Fossil Collecting Sites | ||||||
| # | ACCESS | STATE | COUNTY | NEARBY CITY |
FORMATION | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | BOAT | NC | Halifax | Halifax | Yorktown | -- |
| 2 | BOAT | NC | Northampton | Murfreesboro | Yorktown | -- |
| 3 | BOAT | NC | Hertford | Murfreesboro | Chowan River/ Yorktown |
Inside the NE city limits of Murfreesboro, the US Hwy 258 bridge over the Meherrin River. These formations outcrop to the west on the south bank of the river. They can also be found upstream about 1.5 miles in a bluff and about 1 mile downstream from the bridge, best accessibility by boat. |
| 4 | SCUBA | NC | Hertford | Murfreesboro | Chowan River/ Yorktown |
Inside the NE city limits of Murfreesboro, the US Hwy 258 bridge over the Meherrin River. These formations have been eroded by the river in several places upstream and downstream from the bridge. Fossils can be found on gravel and sand bars along the river bed for several miles. |
| 5 | PUBLIC | NC | Bertie | -- | -- | -- |
| 6 | PUBLIC | NC | Bertie | -- | -- | -- |
| 7 | BOAT | NC | Edgecombe | -- | -- | -- |
| 8 | BOAT | NC | Edgecombe | -- | -- | -- |
| 9 | BOAT | NC | Pitt | -- | -- | -- |
| 10 | PUBLIC | NC | Pitt | Greenville | Chowan River/ Yorktown |
Green Mill Run is a very small, short creek inside the town of Greenville. It extends from behind the 10th Street Post Office through the ECU campus, Green Springs Park and empties into the Tar River. The banks, creek bed and tributaries contain fossils. Take chest-high waders, a shovel and screening equipment. Some of the largest, high quality, Fossil Great White teeth found anywhere in the US come from this location. Like many urban streams, this creek is very polluted so leave the kids at home and take proper precautions. |
| 11 | BOAT | NC | Pitt | -- | -- | -- |
| 12 | BOAT | NC | Pitt | -- | -- | -- |
| 13 | PUBLIC | NC | Beaufort | -- | - | -- |
| 14 | BOAT | NC | Wayne | -- | -- | -- |
| 15 | SCUBA | NC | Wayne | -- | -- | -- |
| 16 | PRIVATE | NC | Greene | -- | -- | -- |
| 17 | BOAT | NC | Greene | -- | -- | -- |
| 18 | PRIVATE | NC | Beaufort | Aurora | Croatan/ Chowan River/ Yorktown/ Pungo River |
The PCS Phosphate Mine (Lee Creek) located at Aurora. You have to have an invitation to get into the mine. Invitations are only extended to fossil clubs and some individuals who apply for a slot in the Spring and the Fall. See Lee Creek Mine |
| 19 | BOAT | NC | Lenoir | -- | -- | -- |
| 20 | BOAT | NC | Lenoir | - | - | -- |
| 21 | PRIVATE | NC | Craven | -- | -- | -- |
| 22 | PUBLIC | NC | Craven | -- | -- | -- |
| 23 | PUBLIC | NC | Craven | -- | -- | -- |
| 24 | BOAT | NC | Cumberland | -- | -- | -- |
| 25 | PUBLIC | NC | Bladen | -- | -- | -- |
| 26 | PRIVATE | NC | Duplin | -- | -- | -- |
| 27 | BOAT | NC | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 28 | BOAT | NC | Jones | -- | -- | -- |
| 29 | BOAT | NC | Jones | -- | -- | -- |
| 30 | BOAT | NC | Jones | -- | -- | -- |
| 31 | PRIVATE | NC | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 32 | BOAT | NC | Craven | -- | -- | -- |
| 33 | BOAT | NC | Robeson | -- | -- | -- |
| 34 | PUBLIC | NC | Bladen | -- | -- | -- |
| 35 | BOAT | NC | Bladen | -- | -- | -- |
| 36 | PUBLIC | NC | Pender | -- | -- | -- |
| 37 | PRIVATE | NC | Pender | Rocky Point | -- | Martin-Marietta Quarry. Seek permission. |
| 38 | PRIVATE | NC | Pender | -- | -- | -- |
| 39 | PUBLIC | NC | Pender/ Onslow |
Surf City/ Topsail Island |
Hawthorn | Fossils are washed up along 20 miles of beach by wave and tidal action. The is the second best fossiliferous beach in the US and will soon be the best if Venice, FL, continues to produce fewer and smaller fossils. Email us for directions, accommodations and recommended spots. Email |
| 40 | PUBLIC | NC | Columbus | -- | -- | -- |
| 41 | PRIVATE | NC | Columbus | -- | -- | -- |
| 42 | PUBLIC | NC | Columbus | -- | -- | -- |
| 43 | PRIVATE | NC | New Hanover | -- | -- | Martin-Marietta Quarry. Seek permission. |
| 44 | BOAT | NC | New Hanover | -- | -- | -- |
| 45 | BOAT | NC | New Hanover | -- | -- | -- |
| 46 | PUBLIC | SC | Chesterfield | -- | -- | -- |
| 47 | PUBLIC | SC | Chesterfield | -- | -- | -- |
| 48 | PUBLIC | SC | Darlington | -- | -- | -- |
| 49 | PUBLIC | SC | Darlington | -- | -- | -- |
| 50 | PUBLIC | SC | Florence | -- | -- | -- |
| 51 | PUBLIC | SC | Florence | -- | -- | -- |
| 52 | PUBLIC | SC | Clarendon | -- | -- | -- |
| 53 | PUBLIC | SC | Williamsburg | -- | -- | -- |
| 54 | PUBLIC | SC | Georgetown | -- | -- | -- |
| 55 | PRIVATE | SC | Dorchester | Harleyville | Ladson/ Chandler Bridge/ Ashley/ Castle Hayne |
Giant Portland Cement Company pit (2 miles N of Harleyville) and Lafarge (Blue Circle) Quarries. Get permission first. |
| 56 | PRIVATE | SC | Dorchester | -- | -- | -- |
| 57 | SCUBA | SC | Charleston | Charleston | Hawthorn/ Chandler Bridge/ Ashley/ Castle Hayne |
6 spots in the Cooper River where you can dive to find fossils eroded from several formations. (Specific locations deleted.) Click here for a general map of the Cooper River from Charleston to Monck's Corner. Cooper River Email for annotated map and directions: Email |
| 58 | SCUBA | SC | Charleston/ Colleton |
Pine Landing | Chandler Bridge/ Ashley |
Dive the Edisto River to find fossils eroded from several formations. (Specific locations deleted.) |
| 59 | SCUBA | SC | Beaufort | -- | -- | -- |
More to be added as time permits.
NOTES:
1.) DO NOT expect to find fossil shark teeth at each one of these locations. You WILL find the formations. You WILL find fossils. We have done most of the work, now you are on your own.
2.) We are going to let you in on a secret that many fossil dealers do not want you to know. Many dealers claim that most of the shark teeth have been found and you had better buy the ones he has for sale before they are all gone. This is simply misrepresentation designed to sell teeth. For every tooth that has been found, there are literally millions that are still waiting to be uncovered. Think about the PCS Mine at Aurora, NC, for example. 25 miles to the NW in Pitt County, the Yorktown formation lies near the surface, yet at the mine, 90+ feet of surface deposits have to be removed to get to this same layer. Consider that this same fossil formation runs buried under tons of sediment and extends 25 miles to the NW, 40 miles to the SE, 50 miles to the SW and at least 100 miles to the North (in NC). PCS is exposing a few 10's of acres of fossils, yet there are hundreds of thousands of acres of Yorktown Formation that still lie buried and undiscovered. Thousands of square miles of land in North and South Carolina have fossil teeth a few feet to several hundred feet down under tobacco fields, cow pastures, subdivisions, parking lots, football stadiums and Taco Bell Restaurants. Multiply this times the number of formations lying underfoot times the number of States along the Eastern Seaboard and the number of world-wide locations and you begin to understand why we will never run out of fossil shark teeth.
3.) Many dealers also claim that a certain river has been picked clean of fossils and that there are none left. Cited examples are the Cooper River in SC and the Meherrin River in NC (what one dealer calls the "Copper Site"). Most times the diver has exhausted the easy places and is simply too lazy to look in the more difficult sections of the river bed or dive when the conditions favor finding the newly exposed teeth. Even the river bed gravel bars that so many people know about still contain teeth if you dig around in the sandy borders. Most of the river beds are covered by 3 inches to 3 feet of silty muck. Finding teeth is just like panning for gold; the heavy teeth sink to the bottom and are hidden by the muck. Most of the divers have moved south to other rivers, but big, beautiful teeth are still being found in the Cooper and Meherrin by people who are not too lazy to search the difficult areas.
Serious divers know what the effect of a couple of weeks of steady rain or a good hurricane can do to the geography of a river bed. An event like this produces the most difficult diving but often the most productive because the river bed becomes a whole new ball game. Divers fight the current to stay in one place and the stirred up sediment limits visibility to inches, but newly uncovered teeth are easy pickings.
4.) The best fossil collecting sites in the Coastal Carolinas are the river banks and river beds. The erosive forces have done the work for you by exposing these fossils. The beds and portions of the banks of rivers, streams and creeks in North and South Carolina are owned by the state and as such are Public Property. Navigable rivers are under "control" of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Outside of a requirement in SC to have a Hobby Diver License ($5 available in most dive shops), there are no restrictions to the casual collector's rights to find and take home fossils from these areas. The problem often lies in getting to these spots. Parking off road at a bridge and following the public bank 1/4 mile upstream to a formation exposed in a bank could take a couple of hours because of the dense underbrush and having to cross tributaries that connect to the main river. The alternative of walking to the bluff from a nearby road could entail crossing private land which is NEVER A GOOD IDEA WITHOUT PERMISSION. Without exception, every rural family in these states owns at least one gun. For these reasons we recommend accessing these sites with a boat. This method also gives you the flexibliity of scoping out the bluffs from a distance and moving upstream or downstream to better collecting sites. You do not need a 30 foot cabin cruiser, in fact, the smaller, the better. A kayak, canoe or 10 foot flatbottom is a lot easier to transport and will do just fine in most cases. An avid collector friend of ours rents a canoe near these fossil sites and straps it on to his SUV for the weekend.
We will not discuss the obvious problem of diving the river beds and only observe that this activity is best left up to certified SCUBA divers, preferably "dark-water certified". Diving in these conditions is several orders of magnitude harder than diving your local "Y" swimming pool, although the "hype" you read of divers having to fight off huge sharks, alligators and snakes is just hype. In the last 5 years, 4 experienced people and 2 novices have died in these rivers with SCUBA tanks on their backs. If you have the experience and equipment for this activity please keep in mind that most of the sites listed above as "BOAT" will also have fossils scattered along the river bed for miles downstream.
5.) For land collecting your equipment needs are simple: a good pair of thin gloves, boots or sturdy shoes, gardener's knee pads, a hat for protection from the sun, sunscreen, rain slicker, mosquito repellent, a chisel (and safety goggles), a rock hammer, hand towels, wet wipes, a small or collapsible shovel and a backpack to carry this stuff. Carry a couple of bottles of water and a bag of trail mix or an energy bar. In the summer months you will need HUGE quantities of liquid. Pack an extra pair of pants and shoes in your trunk to change into so you don't muddy the car on the drive home.
Don't forget something to pack your fossils in. A cheap 3 or 5 gallon plastic bucket with a lid works well and also doubles as a stool to sit on. Take some newspaper or tissue to wrap your fossils to keep them from getting damaged on the walk back and the trip home.
NOW GET OUT THERE AND FIND SOME FOSSILS!!!!!
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