70 Million Years in the Making.

     R., the girls, and I have taken up the hobby of fossil hunting.  Yeah, I know what you are thinking, ‘Fossil hunting in NJ?’.  Ironically, the first dinosaur for exhibit in the United States was found in NJ in the 1800s.  It was a Hadrosaur (Named for Haddonfield, NJ).   

     Our journey into fossil hunting started because I saw a preserve on the way to a golf outing.  I couldn’t remember the name when I got home, so I searched for preserves in the area and found a place named Big Brook. 

     That weekend the kids and I jumped into the car to do some recon.  Arriving at the preserve, we could see the trails leading to the water and heard the sloshing of screens and sifters. Running into a young man dressed like Indiana Jones, we found out that everything from sharks teeth to dinosaur bones could be found at the location.  Feeling silly, that we did not bring any gear, we decided to come back the next day with R.

     The following day was sunny.  Armed with our water shoes and dollar store colanders, we arrived at the water.  When I was younger I did some shark tooth hunting at Sharks River Park but it left me ill prepared for Big Brook.  We stepped into the cold rushing water and found what we thought was a decent spot.  Immediately we began to pull up interesting rocks and pieces of ancient sharks’ teeth.

Within fifteen minutes of arriving, we found our first whole shark tooth.  It was awesome.  We started finding fossilized squid, brachiopods and other goodies.  All of us were excited about our finds.  We each picked our favorite five (Park regulates amount of fossils taken to five per person) and left.

      As excited as R, and I were, the kids were interested enough, that they wanted to go back a few days later.  Again, we were amazed at the items that we pulled up from the underbelly of the currents.  We even got to see an ancient clam bed on a river wall.

      It was time for a kid project, so we headed off to A.C. Moore to pick up a shadow box and some stickers to create a display of our newly found treasures.

      Looking at the shadow box now, we kind of laugh.  Since then, we have purchased some real sifting screens and trowels.  We have found several more fossil hunting locations and have sifted perfect shark teeth, shells, jaws, spines, vertebrae, Brachiopods and even an early dear skull.  We’ve also met many interesting people and have learned much about the items we have collected.

     Of all the treasures we have found in the river, the best was a hobby the whole family enjoys and it was only 70,000,000 years in the making.