This past week I have had several people from outside the Golden Triangle area ask me how the fossil park in Columbus is coming along, and though moving slowly it is moving.

Then on Wednesday Steve Zuppa, who has a fossil podcast, interviewed me on what fossils are found in northeast Mississippi and in particular at the site that will become the fossil park in Columbus.

Apparently fossil hunting sites, especially those with dinosaur bones and shark teeth, are attracting tourists nationwide. The chalk and sands of northeast Mississippi date to the Late Cretaceous period of 65-85 million years ago, which is known as the “Age of Dinosaurs.”

East Mississippi was the eastern edge of a great sea that divided North America and extended to Dallas, Texas. When the Columbus, Starkville, West Point, Tupelo area was covered by the inland sea, what is now Jackson and the part of the Delta around southern Humphreys County were volcanic islands. Because the shallow sea here was not far from the coast and at times an estuary both marine and terrestrial fossils can be found in the Columbus area. It is that combination of marine and terrestrial fossils that give the Columbus fossil park such great tourism potential. In people’s minds the word dinosaurs is magic and we have them here.

The most common teeth to be found are those of sharks. Teeth from more than 10 various kinds of sharks have turned up. Other fish teeth such as the Enchodus or “sabre-toothed” fish and an extinct “sawfish” are also found. The teeth and scutes from crocodiles and teeth from mosasaurs (a huge sea going lizard like reptile) are not uncommon in some places. Recently I found a raptor tooth on the Luxapallila and a couple of years ago I found a broken hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) tooth along the creek. In addition to the Cretaceous fossils, Pleistocene or “Ice Age fossils of 10,000 to 40,000 years ago are sometimes found.

In previous columns I have mentioned the kinds of fossils found in the Cretaceous and Pleistocene deposits of northeast Mississippi but I have repeatedly been asked for images of them. Below are some of the more common or interesting Cretaceous fossils found in the Luxapallila at Plymouth Bluff or at other locations in Lowndes County and examples of Pleistocene fossils found locally.

At the MUW Plymouth Bluff Center there is an excellent display of fossils from the Columbus area. A wonderful guide to fossils in northeast Mississippi is “a guide to the Frankstown Vertebrate Fossil Locality” published by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Geology. It may be downloaded from the DQE website. It describes the fossils found at a fossil park near Tupelo which basically are the same fossils found along the Luxapallila, at Plymouth Bluff and other Cretaceous outcroppings around Columbus, Starkville and West Point. My best fossils have been given to either the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science or the museum at the MUW Plymouth Bluff Center. I would encourage people to have fossils they find identified and consider donating important finds to a museum.

I would be remiss not to mention that but for the hard work of Columbus Grants Administrator Susan Wilder the fossil park in Columbus probably would never have been a reality. The late Sam Kaye, Carolyn Kaye and I first proposed it about 10 years ago and we could get no traction on the idea, even though Columbus fossils made BBC News, the Smithsonian, the Discovery Channel and local residents were traveling to the Browning Fossil Park near Tupelo. Susan heard about the park idea, realized its value to Columbus and got the project moving. Thanks to Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin and the City Council for understanding the park’s potential and going forward with it.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].