WAUCHULA, Fla. — Along the idyllic Peace River, you can find great spots to camp and incredible wildlife, but one thing that goes mostly unnoticed is what lies beneath the surface of the river. In this week's Florida on a Tankful, we explore the art of sifting and searching for the bones of animals from a bygone era.
What You Need To Know
- The Peace River is ideal for finding fossils
- Fred Mazza is a tour guide that helps clients find the good stuff
- He's been in love with natural history since the age of 5
looking closely through rocks, sand and dirt. Kathryn Prawdzik is in search of something you won't find in just any river. Out along the calm waters of Peace River, Kathryn and her fiancé Alex are in search of fossils.
The pair first found this hobby three months ago, when they moved from Michigan to the sunshine state for an extended work trip. They now have an activity they plan to continue exploring.
“Now we go at least once a week when we have time off from work, but its our last week here, and we head back to Michigan so definitely trying to fit as much in as we can," Prawdzik said. Since moving here, they've tried a few different rivers, but none have yielded quite the haul they've found here. That might be thanks to the guide they have along for the ride.
“We've found a lot of fossils out here!" fossil finder extraordinaire Fred Mazza exclaimed. Fred has had a love of natural history since the age of five, so it's no wonder he made trekking through the Peace River in search of fossils his career.
With more than 30 years of fossil hunting experience all along the east coast, he's amassed quite the collection of fossils, and made significant contributions to both the New Jersey State Museum, and the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Now, he's helping others find their own pieces of history, taking adventurers out seven days a week in search of the next great find. Discovering everything from mammal bones and vertebra to shark teeth, even a Megalodon tooth or two if you're lucky.
It's a day of roughing it in the wild with a guide that's made it his mission to preserve and discover the history that lies below the waters of Peace River.
Paleo Discoveries currently offers tours seven days a week as this is their busy season. The best time to go is before the rainy season so if you'd like to try your hand at digging for fossils Fred recommends you come out sometime before the end of June.