I have received many requests for information on the current status of
Little Stave Creek, a prime collecting site in the Coastal Plain of Alabama
(USA). I regret to say that it is still closed to visitors.

Little Stave Creek has yielded hundreds of species of Eocene mollusks and
other fossils since its rediscovery by Winnie McGlamery in the 1930's. It
has also been a popular stop on geological field trips, including petroleum
company field schools. The Vail and Haq curves are partly based on this
section. The main destination, the prolific Gosport Sand, is exposed on
only a short stretch of the creek, and mostly in one bluff about 10 m tall.
Until a few years ago, a series of landowners leniently allowed the public
to collect fossils by appointment. This made for a pleasant experience,
because the creek is quite beautiful even without the attraction of fossil
shells, and making an appointment ensured that one's group would be
undisturbed by others that day.

Unfortunately, during the 1990's the bluff began to collapse as a result of
undermining, principally by shark tooth collectors. The basal 0.3 m of
Gosport Sand is rich in shark teeth, and collectors dug into the cliff
about 1.3 m. At an overhang of about 0.6 m, this bluff becomes unstable. I
was nearby, just around the bend of the creek, when a block at least 3 m
long came down with a WHUMPF and blocked half the creek. Cracks in the
bluff showed where the next fall would occur, as in fact it did several
months later. Further rock falls have occurred since then. Previously, I
think in the 80's, a collector was trapped in a rock fall with a broken
limb and had to be dug out by a rescue squad, so the danger was not
theoretical. The landowners remained calm and allowed visitors to come as
long as they signed a release statement, but they were not pleased by the
deterioration of their property, which they used frequently for church
socials. And it was clearly no longer a safe place for children to learn
about fossils.

The final blow was the discovery that people were selling Little Stave
shark teeth in bulk in another state. Most of us have never experienced the
shock of seeing fossils from one's own land for sale as a commodity. The
landowners had always felt that they were doing a public good by allowing
visitors to collect fossils, and were proud to be sought out by
international visitors. Now they felt abused. I telephoned the landowner
today and the situation is unchanged: Little Stave Creek will be given a
chance to heal.

Let's be good sports about this and go elsewhere to collect this year. It
should be a good one, because the drought of 1999 has continued into 2000,
and when the rivers start to go down, they may reach very low levels and
expose fresh, fossiliferous sediment. The rivers are usually low from June
to October, unless a hurricane passes through: but the Alabama and
Tombigbee Rivers are not as predictable as the Nile, and are fully capable
of rising by 12 m during the winter. Heat, humidity, poison ivy, and
insects all peak in August -- but the rivers are also usually at their
lowest then. I can suggest some alternative sites for serious and
not-so-serious collectors of mollusks -- and some pointers on local
etiquette that may help to smooth collector-landowner relations. At present
I know of no publicly accessible alternative sites in Alabama for
collecting large numbers of shark teeth.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
P.O. Box 869999
Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-6999
USA
(205) 349-2852
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