| A couple of years ago a fellow collector and club member
introduced me to a favored collecting spot on the banks of Skiatook Lake
in Osage County, Oklahoma. At first glance, you would readily notice large
slabs of tan and brown rock intermingled with the more traditional grays
and whites of limestone. On closer inspection, you would be somewhat
impressed with the number of marine fossils, mostly brachiopods, embedded
in the rocks. Along the rocky shoreline, there is typically a small strip of
worn rock and gravels that contain numerous marine fossils weathered from
the host rock. These might include several types of brachiopods, several
species of gastropods, numerous crinoid parts, the occasional cephalopod,
both straight and coiled, and if one is very fortunate, the occasional crinoid
calyx may be found in matrix.
The first time we went to Tall Chief Cove, everything was pristine. The
shoreline was wild and deserted; the waves gently lapped at the gravel and
swirled around the standing dead trees just offshore. A light breeze made
for a comfortable day of collecting. We spent the better part of three
hours searching the gravels for fossils, and indeed, we collected quite a
few different varieties. Another marine fossil to be found here is a conularia, a pyramidal shaped shell that was a squid-type creature, and
similar in appearance to a baculites cephalopod. This soon became an
obsession with my youngest son, then 13 or so. His priority was and still
is to find the biggest and best conularia in the county. So far he has the
title.
It was nearly a year or more before we went back to Tall Chief Cove to
collect. We found the same pristine shoreline, and more of the wonderfully
preserved marine fossils to be had there. Off and on we would return to
Tall Chief Cove to collect when we needed a local collecting spot for a
Saturday or Sunday excursion. Then about eight months ago, we returned to
Tall Chief Cove. It was the weekend of June 7th, 2006. When we arrived, the swimming beach where we usually parked
to access the cove was closed due to low water levels. We parked near the
boat ramp and found a ranger on duty there, trying to keep folks out of
the swimming area. We spoke with him about accessing the beach, and he
advised that he couldn't let us cross the swimming area because he had to
keep people away from it for safety reasons. He did however tell us that
if we parked up near the closed gate to the swimming beach and walked in,
as long as he didn't see us and no one else did, we could walk in from
there. Then he told us about a private development just inside the park
gate, where a developer was doing some dirt work, and that we could
probably drive right to the end of the cove where we wanted to go. He
agreed that the shoreline there was probably the best fossil collecting
anywhere on the lake. We had no trouble finding the trace that
led us down to within yards of the shoreline. We found that the private
development called "Cross Timbers" was planning to build all
sorts of amenities just above the beach where we collect. Some of these
proposed amenities are a dockside kiosk and boat docks.
Apparently they are planning to put in a fountain and waterfall in a small
cove, a restaurant, fitness center, and all sorts of things. Essentially,
they plan to commercialize and colonize the entire shoreline for over a
mile. At this point, there had not been much done to the
shoreline, other than the small cove where they had built up a rock wall
and done some dozer work on top of the hill. The beach itself was still
pretty much as it was the first time we were there. 
As
you can see in the photos above, the shoreline is still fairly wild and
rough. The water level is up a bit so some of the better collecting is
currently under water here. However, the exposed shoreline still provides
good collecting opportunities for us. I decided that due to the impending
development on the cove, that this would be a good time to schedule a
field trip for TRMS members to recover and preserve specimens from the
locality before it was made inaccessible or construction destroyed the
locality. I organized a field trip for TRMS members for July, and
on July 23rd we had a record turnout for this little fossil hunt. Members
from Tulsa Rock and Mineral, as well as some members of the Broken Arrow
Paleo Society gathered and spent the better part of the day collecting and
marveling at the great specimens they were finding. Many were already
weathered from the matrix and their extremely durable nature lent to great
preservation of detail in many. Everyone enjoyed this field trip and went
home with some great specimens. 
TRMS
member Gary Cooper takes a break, As you can see, the shoreline is still
wild and rough, and productive, Tony Morris wonders where that elusive
Conularia is hiding... 
The
lake level is down several feet at this time, and the gravels are very
productive. This is an ideal time to be collecting the fossils here. After
a very productive day, everyone was happy. Let's jump ahead here
to early November, 2006. Just three months have passed, and here we are in
the fall season. The leaves have changed their colors, and Tall Chief Cove
is as beautiful as ever wrapped in yellows, gold, and browns. We decided
to go see how the beach looked, knowing that the lake levels had dropped
another several feet in the past three months. Hoping for some good
exposures of gravels and lots of fossils to find, we headed into the cove
on the development road. It didn't look much different than it had in
July, so we were hopeful for some good collecting. It was a nice day with
a few clouds floating around, not too hot or too cold. I had brought my
nephew with me and he was excited to be back here to collect more fossils.
As we approached through the woods to the crest of the hill above the
cove, everything looked great. Then it happened! We topped the hill
above the beach, and it was gone! I was quite taken aback by what I saw
had been done to the shoreline. Tons of shale had been dozed over the
beach to the east of the wall, and what used to be a drop-off to the west
end of the beach had been dozed off and now there was a road where the
beach used to be... All of the near shore rock had been dozed and moved to
level off the shoreline, and it was evident that the best of the
collecting area was now gone, the victim of progress, commercialization,
and greed. After following the dozer tracks all the way to the
west end of the beach, we could readily tell that it would soon be like
the east end of the cove, under tons of shale. It is also evident that the
developer plans to have boat docks the entire length of the south shore of
the cove, the primary collecting area. The massive blocks of sandstone and
limestone that once lay strewn about were nowhere to be seen, and all of
the matrix rock was now mixed in with clay and sand, nothing like it was
just three short months ago. 
It's
only going to get worse, as the development continues, the collecting
opportunities continue to diminish. Soon there will be boat docks, kiosks,
and limited access, and the beach that once was will exist only in these
pictures. The fossils will still be there and perhaps in a couple of
hundred years nature will reclaim the beach once again. Perhaps future
rockhounds will rediscover Tall Chief Cove. For now, we have to bid
farewell to a great collecting spot and move on to greener pastures. Related
Articles: Little
Blue Rabbit
Field
Trip Report, Skiatook
Lake, Tallchief Cove
Copyright
2006, Virgil G. Richards
www.dances-with-snakes.com
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