Day 4 of 8: Riverbeds

The hotel in Sherman was nice (I sure slept well there...).  After breakfast we drove out to meet Bill Johnson, of DPS.  He then led us to Ladonia, TX, or just outside it, to the Pete Patterson Fossil Park.  This is actually a location on the North Sulphur River.

Beside a bridge is a kind of staircase that takes you to the river.  Thank goodness because the banks here are high and steep.  In the 1920's, the Corp of Engineers straightened the river, revealing fossil-rich layers.


It is a frequently visited site and unless some heavy rains have exposed additional fossils, not many will be there to find.  At the time of our visit, we found a few tantalizing bits, just enough to make us want to return after a rain.  Still, finds included pretty pieces of baculites, ammonites, and gastropods.  Jill found a wonderful Enchodus tooth:

Just to be sure we were hooked on coming back, DPS member Don and Jane Fagerstrom gave us a tour of their collection.  Oh, my!  They hav
e a LOT of shark's teeth, plesiosaur vertebrae, and other fantastic fossils.  The biggest beauty was the Tylosaur skull.


After the tour, we headed back west and stopped just outside of Sherman (where we woke up this morning) at Post Oak Creek.  We collected pelecypods and sharks teeth.  It was amazing how quiet folks can be when focused on fossils.  We simply assumed the position and looked: