I work as a quarry worker in a fossil fish quarry about 8000 feet up a mountain near Kemmerer, Wyoming. Everyday us quarry workers wake up at 5:00 and are at the quarry by 6:00. We have to be up there by then to see the outlines of the fish in the low-level light. For the rest of the day we are working on removing the slate and shale. We shovel and chip away at the rock for several hours, checking and splitting each piece in case there is a fish inside that we missed earlier. Sometimes the slabs of rock that we remove in one go weigh 200 pounds. Everyday we end up moving a lot of rock to excavate the fossils. We pull out around 20 or more fossils worth between $50 and $150 dollars. Somtimes, fossils can be priced up to several thousands of dollars. After a while though the wind picks up and starts to whip the sand and dust around. After working in the dust and removing the rubble we are pretty dirty. Everyday all of us are coated in dust from the rock saws and our clothes are full of grit from the shovels. It's a dirty job but we love it.

Hey Mike,
I realize I left you a bit in the dark about fossil hunting. The people to talk to are the Ulrichs here in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Check us out at www.ulrichsfossilgallery.com/. If you stop by (next summer, we're almost done here) we'll hook you up with our fondly named 'backbreaker' section, we'll have you run the hill, and we'll even let you play with some corpolite (fossil fish poop in case you didn't know). We'd love to have you come by and help us find some fish that haven't seen the light of day in over 55 million years. What do you say Mike?