Hanson 5-2014
This trip to Hanson Quarry was just a week after the previous one with no rain in between. I was a little worried that it might be a bust but I did have an ace in my pocket. There is a second site at the quarry. It is even smaller than the first site but no one had hunted it since the Tar Heel Gem and Mineral Club had been there in April. Soo the 11 hardy souls brave enough to hit a quarry just a week after we had been there got to hunt fresh dirt. This area is right next to the active quarry, and at one end the spoil piles terminate at a creek which cuts right through the upper part of the Yorktown so you get to see it in situ rather like you can at Greens Mill Run. Though the area is small, Tracey found a wonderful white shark tooth (after 6 other people had walked by the same spot ), Joanne found a nice worn meg and several folks picked up nice Chesapectens and whale bone fragments. After a couple hours we moved back over to the first site (the one we had hunted the week before) and although you could still see our footprints in the dirt, there were still plenty of fossils to be found. I personally picked up 7 fish skulls (including the 1 pathological one), 8 Hake verts. 40 fish verts (including 2 swollen ones), 1 white shark tooth, 1 Emmons fish tooth, 13 possible pufferfish gill plates, 15 weird fish bones, 2 fish jaw fragments with teeth, a crab claw, misc. bivalves, Chesapectens and lots of whale bone chunks. Joy picked up a very cool posteriolateral Carcharodon carcharias tooth, Victor found a whale earbone, drumfish jaw fragment and a cool Chesapecten with barnacles on it. Tracey got a MONSTER white shark tooh, and Julie got a crab claw and whale earbone as well. Rufus found a couple pieces of petrified wood. I think everyone had a good day. Another great trip. We again want to thank Mary Harbison for sharing this site with our club and John Warlick Hanson Quarry for letting us hunt there. Linda McCall