Story by Kyle Ennis
ANCHOR LEAD:
The state of North Carolina is full of hidden gems and fossils that are millions of years old. Kyle Ennis shares the secret to where many of the fossils now live.
NATS: Sifting for fossils in a dirt pile.
TRACK:
Just off the coast of Eastern North Carolina in a town of 500 people sits the Aurora Fossil Museum.
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum Executive Director
We’re all in the same boat. Going towards the same goal is to spread science knowledge.
TRACK:
The museum’s curators are unique.
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum Executive Director
I don’t like the word amateur, so the Aurora Fossil Museum is a model museum.
TRACK:
One fossil hunter Todd Cook is awed by fossils that are millions of years old.
Todd Cook, Amateur Fossil Hunter
All these animals are extinct. And the process of finding them like it’s kind of humbling and makes you feel kind of small, like in a good way.
TRACK:
The feeling might be small.
But the impact is often quite large.
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum Executive Director
There are a lot of advocational or paleontologists who have more knowledge than I do. And I’m not afraid to admit that.
NATS: These are Carcharodon Hastalis teeth.
TRACK:
One of those people is Clyde Swindell who spent 45-plus years digging in the mine.
His work reaching the Smithsonian.
Clyde Swindell, Lee Creek Mine Fossil Hunter
They was just cool to pick up, you know, like you pick up things on the beach or shells and stuff, and then all the more people, and then you find out how much value they have, how many people wanted them. And you started to just collect them. It’s like turns into a passion.
Todd Cook, Amateur Fossil Hunter
The next thing you know, you find like some amazing fossil that’s like laying there in a place so you wouldn’t think it would be. So it kind of keeps you on your toes, you know, like just question everything, like sift everything.
TRACK:
Fossil hunters like Swindell visited the Lee Creek Mine often….it’s no longer open to the public but advocational hunters found lots of treasures.
NATS: Over six inches you’re talking thousands of dollars.
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum Executive Director
80 to 90% of the things of the specimens are artifacts or were found by amateurs.
TRACK:
The museum’s doors are wide open with a desire to welcome all groups
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum Executive Director
“We have universities, we have other museums, we have other paleontologists, and we have fossil clubs, and they all, and we have dealers, fossil dealers come in. We have them all here for the weekend and they all get along.”
TRACK:
The Fossil Festival that takes place every year during Memorial Day weekend brings passionate groups together from around the world to experience world-class fossils.
Even rookies sometimes get lucky.
Kyle Ennis, UNC Media Hub Reporter
Had to get the tools myself. Go give it a dig. You got the shovel, got the sifter. Throw a couple pieces of dirt, a couple of rocks. And what do we got here? I got a shark tooth. That’s a good first find. In Aurora, I’m Kyle Ennis reporting.
TAG:
Looks like a place in North Carolina that might be a place you just have to visit and who knows you could get lucky as Kyle did with his first shark tooth.
TRT 2:36
