
Drive off of
Harris Creek Road in
Hampton near Fox Hill
and you’ll find a rather
out of place lake. You
could never tell that this
lake once attracted people
to dig for fossils and
become engrossed in the
prehistoric. This lake was
once a 70-foot-deep,
empty depression better
known as Rice’s Fossil Pit.
In the 1940s,
William and Madeline
Rice bought 18 acres of
land and used it as a borrow
pit. In 1960, Mr. Rice
was digging when he
came across a once in a
lifetime find – the 60-footlong
fossilized skeleton of
some sort of whale. He
called the Smithsonian
Institute and paleontologists
arrived at his
Hampton home within
days. What Mr. Rice
found was a previously
unknown species of bowhead
whale the scientists
would later name Balaena
ricei in honor of its
founder. The animal
dated back to the Miocene
Epoch, laying quietly in
the pit for 20 million
years. The scientists
packed the fossil but hadn’t
traveled beyond
Yorktown when they
received word that Rice
once again struck fossilized
gold when he
found a 500-pound piece
of Miocene star coral.
Paleontologists
flocked to the pit, dubbing
it one of the "richer
fossil finds in the world.”
It was full of Miocene era
marine life, giving insight
into the geography of
Hampton during this time
period. They determined
that it was once under
approximately 100 feet of
water and all that died
simply settled to the bottom.
The Rice children,
particularly 8-year-old
Kenny, loved hanging
around the digs, finding
fossils, and Kenny became
a relative expert on the
fossils found in his backyard.
In 1966, Kenny was
driving a tractor to the pit
when it toppled over the
edge and he was killed.
On January 1,
1967, Kenny’s parents
turned their grief into
something positive when
they opened the Kenneth
E. Rice Memorial
Museum and Fossil Pit.
For a nominal fee, the
public was welcome to
come, dig, and keep whatever
they found. Mr. Rice
was always around to
help and educate his visitors.
It was a landmark
attraction, with schools
taking field trips to the pit
and tourists making a
stop to see if they could
find a new species of their
own. Jan Rice, the Rices’ daughter-in-law, described it as saying, "To
me, it was always like
walking back through
time into the prehistoric
era.”
In 1979, William
Rice passed away from a
heart attack but his wife
continued to operate the
landmark attraction for
another decade. In 1989,
she made the difficult
decision to close the Fossil
Pit due to her failing
health and the city’s
unwillingness to take
over operation. Madeline
Rice passed away in 2000.
Her son, William Jr., sold
the property to Gloria Dei
Lutheran Church in 2005.
They planned to use the
grounds to expand their
facilities and build a playground
for children.
Rather ironically,
the pit that once held a
treasure trove of Miocene
era marine fossils, filled
with water and is now a
lake. The church stated
that they plan on leaving
it as such in order to
attract nature but deter
fossil hunters and amateur
historians from trespassing.
Even nearly two
decades after its closure,
Rice’s Fossil Pit remains a
fond memory for adults
who were raised on the
Peninsula but also a lost
piece of historical discovery.
What the pit had yet
to reveal may never be
known.