Mazon Creek Pit 11 Collecting Report- Islands and Braceville Hill Late 2017

Mazon Creek Collecting Report #4

Yesterday, on September 30, marks the last day of the Fossil Collecting season of the Mazonia State Fish and Wildlife area for 2017. I did not go collect then, the area is quite overgrown regardless. This post briefly highlights 2 end-of season hunts in the previous weekends. One of which was to Braceville Hill, with the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois, and the other, a trip via boat, to a remote island in Braidwood Lake.

 

ESCONI Trip to Braceville Hill

This trip took place in early September. ESCONI hosts 2 trips per year to a privately owned spoil pile that has been known to be productive for Mazon Creek’s famous fossil fauna (marine animals). You must be a member to collect here, for a $20 annual fee. Their facebook page is the best way to keep up to date on upcoming trips.

This is a great event, especially to get introduced to Mazon Creek collecting. It takes place on a bare hill, a very large spoil pile from the early days of coal shaft mining, so the collecting is fairly easy. They also permit digging, and visitors can carve out pieces of the cliff in search of concretions.

On this trip, I found the surface collecting to be quite good, much more so than previous visits to the hill.

The gulleys in the ridges, where rain and weather is most erosive, is where I found most of my haul for the day.

There were about 30-40 people collecting on the trip, and it was great to see some familiar faces.

Some collectors refer to this as “worm hill” because they are very common finds.

Sure enough, one my first ones that opened in the early freeze/thaw process was a worm.

I think I will go on the ESCONI trip again in the spring, I think the hill is becoming quite productive again, moreso than in previous years. It is also nice to collect with a group, and see everyone’s finds. It is a nice change of pace to the remote trips to the South Unit.

Braidwood Lake Islands

The following weekend, Joe, Scott, and I launched the boat one last time on Braidwood Lake. The weather was cooperative, and we ventured about a 20 minute ride to a remote island we call Wildman Gulch. A few seasons back, Scott discovered an amphibian vertabrate in a concretion, the holy grail to collectors, 2nd only to the Tully Monster.

It is a real privilege to collect some of this relatively un-touched land, and we are lucky to have a boat to scuttle us to some productive areas. Even here though, collecting is quite difficult, and it would take an entire day to fill a 5-gallon bucket.

It was also late-season, and even somewhat bare ridges had a lot of plant growth.

From a few pre-opened finds, we were able to tell this pile was mostly terrestrial, which would explain the amphibian spine.

Not pictured is also a nice pecopteris leaf, a fern and a beaver skull found by Joe.

Now, with the collecting season over, these reports will come to an end until March. I will be freeze/thawing this years finds, and posting some noteworthy finds. I estimate I have about 300 lbs of concretions in my closet to work through, little by little. I am sure there are some amazing plants and animals waiting to come out! Though there is nothing of the bunch I am excited about, no Tully-monster shapes from what I can tell. By statistics, about 275lbs of this rock will not yield any fossils. They will simply disintegrate in the freeze/thaw, or open to reveal an unidentifiable blob.

However, there are many gems in there I am sure!

I don’t really ever sell any of my finds, but I was once asked, how much might my collection be worth? I have some very nice ferns, a couple Tully Monsters, shrimp, and finely preserved jellyfish. It’s fairly impressive for only collecting seriously in the past ~5 years or so. I have about 300 very presentable specimens in my collection.

But the answer is, it is both priceless, and worthless. It is 100% about getting outdoors, enjoying nature, the wilderness, learning a bit about our planet’s history, and with good company.

Of course we would not mind if we brought home a Tully Monster (or 5).

Happy 2017 collecting season! Til next year.