MINERAL WELLS —
The Mineral Wells Fossil Park celebrated its grand opening Saturday morning with a large crowd, estimated to be between 300 and 400 people, on hand as the former landfill site was opened to the public for finders, keepers fossil hunting.
The Mineral Wells Area Chamber of Commerce estimated it was their largest ribbon cutting event in years, or perhaps ever, with guests ranging from children and families to older couples attending from across the state.
Parked cars stretched nearly half a mile down Indian Creek Road to the intersection of Weir Road by noon.
Twelve-year-old Eileen Skeen, who wants to go into science when she grows up, said she was enjoying herself Saturday morning as she picked up chunks of dirt and rock to closer inspect the preserved specimens.
Skeen, from McKinney, Texas, said she’d visited Glen Rose before to hunt fossils.
Her mother had been following the progress of the Mineral Wells fossil park through Facebook, according to Skeen.
“The fossils are very small but good,” Skeen said about the Mineral Wells site.
“I’ve been looking for a place to find paleozoic fossils,” Will Childress said.
He and Julie Vail took their two children, Lillian Wallace, 8, and Dylan Wallace, 5, out of school Friday and made the long car ride from northwest Austin to Mineral Wells to be on hand for the grand opening.
Fossil hunting is a hobby for the family when they travel, Childress said.
Childress said he’d heard of fossil hunting sites in the area on the Internet and when Vail discovered a mention of the park in the Austin American-Statesman, she clipped the piece and they decided to visit.
“It’s just great,” Bill Lowe, of Granbury, said as he picked through the dirt for fossils with his wife, Wanda.
Lowe said he helped found Dallas Paleontological Society about 25 years ago and was amazed to see how it had grown to around 300 members and helping with projects such as the fossil park.
“It’s wonderful. This is very exciting for the city of Mineral Wells,” said Charlotte Evans, who serves on the Mineral Wells Parks and Recreation Board, as she watched the pit full of people digging in the dirt Saturday morning.
“I think as time goes by this could turn into something wonderful for the city,” Evans said.
Evans said the board was pretty open minded when they were approached by DPS with the suggestion for a park.
It helped that it was pitched to them with small, doable steps the city could take, Evans said.
Shortly after the former city landfill site closed in 1993, the heavily eroded borrow pit site became something of a fossil hunting mecca in the state after Roger and Linda Farish of Dallas stumbled across the pit and led several field trips to the site, known for its abundance of easily accessible, preserved, Pennsylvanian Period marine life.
Lee Higginbotham, a member of DPS, said he used to take his children and other groups of school children on trips to the city property because he could be sure they each came home with a find.
Crinoids, brachiopods and trilobites are among the types of sea creature remains that can be found at the primitive site that lets visitors experience a very natural fossil-hunting experience.
When the city attempted to sell the land about two years ago, several DPS members showed up to a city council meeting to request the city continue to allow access to the site.
That the site was being used by fossil seekers and was so popular came as a surprise, according to city leaders.
When the land did not receive a bid, the city began looking into the group’s suggestion that the site be turned into a public park and DPS raised letters of support and $6,500 to match the city’s costs of creating a parking area, adding a fence and signs, leveling the entrance to the pit and putting in portable toilets.
“We’re in a recession and to be able to raise that kind of money and be able to do that is a fine thing,” Mayor Mike Allen told the crowd Saturday morning before the ribbon was cut. “I hope you enjoy the Mineral Wells fossil park and come back often to our city to visit us.”
“This is really a victory party,” DPS President Frank Holterhoff said, congratulating the city for seeing something bigger in a landfill.
“Lee Higginbotham, more than anybody else I can think of is a driving force behind the park,” Holterhoff said.
“My goal for the park is for it to be educational,” Higginbotham said. “Lots and lots of people had a part in this.”
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Related Photos
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This panoramic photograph at the old city landfill's borrow pit was taken as hundreds of people ventured into the pit in search of small fossils they could take home. The park celebrated its official public grand opening Saturday. It will be open Friday through Monday from 8 a.m. to dusk. The park is located west of Mineral Wells on Indian Creek Road, about two miles north of U.S. Highway 180 West. By Christin Coyne
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Eileen Skeen, 12, of McKinney, Texas, looks over a find at the city's new fossil park. She said she hopes to go into science one day. Christin Coyne/Index
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An unidentified boy reaches into the dirt of the old city landfill's borrow pit in hopes of a fossil find. Christin Coyne/Index
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Hundreds turn out for fossil park opening
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