Diggin' Fossils in Kemmerer Wyoming

Hi Blog!

Today is Thursday, August 10, 2017.  Yesterday, we visited Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer, Wyoming. This entire area was once part of the ancient Fossil Lake. Long gone, Fossil Lake left behind a wealth of fossils in lake sediments that turned into the rocks known as the Green River Formation, made up of laminated limestone, mudstone and volcanic ash. The fossils are among the world's most perfectly preserved remains of ancient plant and animal life.

The Monument only preserves a small portion of the ancient lake bed. Just in the Kemmerer area alone, there are six private fossil quarries. We learned that these quarries will allow you to dig for fossils for a small fee. However, the rules vary from quarry to quarry. We found one quarry, American Fossil, that allows you to keep whatever you discover no matter what the value.

Here are some of our finds:

Today, we decided to try our hand at fossil hunting. Neither of us have ever dug for fossils before, so we were sure it would be a grand adventure. The 30 minute drive out into the Wyoming outback was worth the price of admission. For the most part, the gravel roads were well graded. We only ran into wet ruts about a 1/4 mile from the quarry. We followed the direction signs and soon descended from the top of the butte down to the quarry site.  This is how the dig site appeared as we pulled up and parked:

After checking in with the site manager, Sherie, we received our hammer and chisel. Sherie's husband Val took us to the dig site and explained the different sediment layers and where we were most likely to find fossils.

The backhoe is used to remove overburden and pull out the fossil bearing rocks to make it easier for guests to locate fossils:

There were at least a half dozen fossil hunters already working the dig site. Val explained that several sections of the quarry are roped off for fossil hunters who lease sites for extended periods of 10 days or longer. Apparently, fossil hunting is big business.

Val grabbed a rock and showed us the various layers. He said to start in the middle and tap, tap, tap and your rock will split. If you are lucky, you will find a fossil. Otherwise, you will probably only see fish poop, which is the only thing that was laid down and fossilized more frequently than the fish!

We picked up likely specimens and began our dissection. Kathy started in the kneeling position --

-- while Dave found the sitting position to be much more comfortable.

Fossil hunting is a lot like fly fishing for trout. You try to figure out where the fish are hiding and then go after them. Hunting fishy fossils, you try and figure out the likely layer and expose it without destroying the little fishy.  Here, Kathy has successfully exposed a little feller:

After finding a fossil, we took it over to a metal shelf with our name on it. This way, we could keep finding fossils and not worry about what they are until we were done exploring.  Here's another cute fellow we found:

After swinging our hammers for two hours, we found a bit of shade to enjoy our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The dig site is on the top of a butte, with steep cliffs down to the valley below.  The scenery went on as far as we could see:

The two hours after lunch went by in a flash. Dave created quite a stir by discovering a stingray. The going rate for a complete stingray is about $5,000. While Dave's may be missing a bit here or there, it was still the find of the day.  It will required some fine chisel and brush work to bring it out, and the quarry workers showed us how to glue part of the fossil back onto the main rock in order to preserve parts that separated when we split the rock.  Once we finish preparing the sting ray, we'll post a photo of it for your enjoyment.

Terry, one of the quarry workers, was kind enough to cut down our finds into manageable "RV sized" specimens. In exchange, we left Terry with two of our larger plant fossils. They were great finds, but just too big for the rig.

We honestly didn't expect to find so many fossils. We kept the best specimens, along with a couple incomplete fossils so that we can practice cleaning them before attempting to clean up the good ones. We took the rest of our fossils and placed them on the shelf of two sisters from California who brought their kids here for an adventure, just in case they didn't find enough to go around.

The fossils are extremely fragile when you find them, because the inside of the rocks is damp limestone.  We have to let the fossils dry for ten days before we do anything with them.  For this reason, we were very careful with our finds as we moved them to the Jeep.  Here, Kathy carefully packs ups up the keepers in a cardboard box supplied by the quarry workers:

After the rocks dry completely, we can clear away any excess sediment to fully expose the fossils.  After that, we have to decide how to mount, preserve and display our favorite speciments.  We will definitely do a follow up blog, once the specimens have been cleaned and made more presentable.

Until then, stay thirsty, my friends.