North Sulphur River Information

The North Sulphur River of northeast Texas has long been known to be a fossil collector's treasure trove for Late Cretaceous and Pleistocene vertebrate and invertebrate fossils alike. Exceptional specimens of nearly complete mosasaurs and several species of fish have been recovered. In addition, an abundant variety of shark's teeth, ammonites, and other molluscs can be collected from its gravel bars and riverbed. Indeed, after a heavy rain, it is not uncommon for an army of dedicated fossil collectors to be found tromping through the receding waters, searching for that special find. Nothing is more disappointing than discovering footprints ahead of you on a gravel bar when you have gotten there at the crack of dawn. Who are these people anyway? The readers of this book, that's who!

The North Sulphur River is a generally west-to-east flowing stream with its headwaters northeast of Bailey in Fannin County. The South Sulphur River links up with it at the junction of Lamar, Delta, Hopkins, Franklin, and Red River Counties. The combined Sulphur River continues eastward where it eventually feeds into the Red River south of Texarkana in southwest Arkansas. In the NSR upper drainage, the original river channel was the north-south boundary between Hunt and Fannin, and Delta and Lamar counties. For flood control and agricultural purposes, it was dredged and straightened in 1929, exposing bedrock of the Ozan and Wolfe City Formations in its upper portions. Erosion in the years since has produced deep cuts within the river channel itself and the tributaries feeding into it. If it had not been for this man made channelization, there would not be the extensive exposures of fossil-bearing rocks currently seen today.

This report is a summary of the geology and paleontology of the upper portions of the North Sulphur River. Our efforts are concentrated along the first twenty linear miles of the river channel. This area extends from the North Sulphur River's headwaters to just east of the Highway 24 bridge on the Paris to Commerce road. There has never been a guidebook dedicated to the fossils of the North Sulphur River available to the general public. A tremendous amount of work has been published on various fossil groups (both microfossil and macrofossil) in assorted professional publications over the years. Not to mention the number of unpub­lished master's theses and doctor's dissertations from universities in Texas alone. The Dallas Paleontological Society has been compiling an exhaustive bibliography of articles related to the North Sulphur River for years. This guidebook is an attempt to capture all that hard to get to data and summarize it in a easy-to-read format for the casual reader. Emphasis will be placed on the fossils as the fossils are the reason for the guidebook in the first place.

In connection with this, the Dallas Paleontological Society hosted a fossil Symposium at the Dallas Museum of Natural History at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, February 13th, 1999. The Society invited the general public and all interested parties to attend. The purpose of the Symposium was to capture on base maps and photographs, the rich fossil fauna and flora gathered by the amateur fossil-collecting community of Texas and adjacent states. The Symposium was a success beyond this humble collector's wildest imagination. Over 130 participants brought in a incredible array of Cretaceous and Pleistocene fossil material. Many of the speci­mens are new to science, and will have to wait for formal scientific description. As a result of the Symposium, the Dallas Paleontological Society can offer a comprehensive photo identification guide to the fossils of the North Sulphur River.

The main entrance is the most picked over area also.... best bets are to search out all the other bridges that cross the river.

Table (Key)

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Permission :	Not Required
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Type of Location :	River

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