Breaking the camera jinx
If it comes down to skill or luck, I’ll take luck most any day.
In this case, I think we were with the luckiest fossil hunter in the state.
Mike Full, a retired McMinnville cop, doesn’t just find little clam shell fossils or imprints of leaves. He finds big stuff. Mammoth tusks, molars, shoulder blades and ribs. Parts of prehistoric bison and camel. He has the most amazing personal collection of fossils I’ve ever seen.
Most times when we do these stories, we come along only after the fossils have been found and we get the fortunate digger to bring us to the site of the find.
But Mike doesn’t dig for fossils. He swims for them. Actually, he scuba dives in search for the prehistoric past.
He agreed to let us tag along on a hunt. Mike donned his scuba gear, as did Oregon Field Guide videographer Michael Bendixen who also owns an underwater camera.
Mike’s neighbor, Amanda, bet him that he wouldn’t find anything significant while an Oregon Field Guide camera hovered over his shoulder. But only about 20 seconds into the dive Mike came up with a piece of bone. It was about a foot long and looked like quite a find to me. Mike said he was sure it was fossilized bone but he surprised me when he said he did not think it was that significant. 20 minutes later he popped back up out of the water spluttering and cheering. “This is the find of a lifetime!” he cried. “Look! It’s a giant sloth claw.”
Sure enough, his fingers had found something amazing hiding in the silt of the river.
Amanda lost the bet - and had to wash Mike’s car & his wife’s truck. Mike sent us a photo which shows she made good on the wager.
Mike’s got the fossil bug big time. He has studied how to handle and preserve them properly. Plus he’s taken geology classes to know more about what he’s finding. Most impressive of all, he’s not hoarding the fossil finds for himself. When they’re ready he’s donating much of it to the Condon Museum at the University of Oregon so far more people can benefit from his discoveries.
