While we were in the Dakotas, we saw a poster telling people that if they found fossils on their land entrepreneurs would come and help them make a profit from the finds, so, “Please call.” We saw the posters in several locations. We assumed it meant we were in fossil territory.
On one afternoon at the camp, we had a little time, so we walked out to the back of the property. The hills look just like the hills where people make fossils finds. For over an hour a bunch of us fanned out and turned over rocks. I picked somethings up. I found some man made items. I found some pretty rocks. I found a piece of a fossilized bone. It was cool looking, but disconnected from something larger, it was mostly just another rock. The groups began to loose interest and drift away. My brother and I were the last people back to camp.
When I was in Boy Scouts I hoped to make a big discovery. One year, on a camping trip, a friend and I excavated what we hoped were dinosaur bones. We dug and swept. We had seen enough that we knew to be careful. We left the long rounded bones in the dirt, just uncovering enough to trace the pattern. When we were sure, we took one piece with us, and marched triumphantly back to camp. The scoutmaster looked it over and the proclaimed it as interesting, but not a bone. It was the fossilized reman at of an ancient borrow. It was a solidified hole in the ground. Another time the same friend and I saw a glint in the water. After about half a day we brought back a cup of fools gold. We thought it was gold. We were fooled.
I stepped out of my truck and my foot came down next to a T-Rex figure lying in the parking lot. I think he was laughing at me. One day, I would love to discover something hidden, something waiting to be uncovered, a treasure. It is easy to loose heart, to give up on a dream, to become worn down by life and struggle. Don’t give up, I really do believe their is treasure all around. We just need to keep turning over rocks.