Mazon Creek Fossil Collecting Trip #1

This is a field report from the first Mazon Creek trip of 2017. This will be the 3rd consecutive year of keeping record of productive fossil collecting areas across the vast wilderness of the Mazonia Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area. The work thus far is documented in an eBook mentioned at the end of this post.

The Terrain

March 5, 2017 we took to the hills for some Mazon Creek Fossil Collecting in the Pit 11 South Unit. It was a cool, cloudy day, but the high of mid-50’s made for some comfortable hiking weather. At the end of the day, I had accumulated about 12 miles of hiking on mostly level terrain, but some demanding off-trail hiking along the steep fossil-yielding ravines that lead to the shore of Monster Lake. The honeysuckle was just beginning to bud, which can be a bad sign for collecting, we are in for a very early spring.

The Team

While it would have been a solo, early-season exploratory search, but in planning, I had been emailing back and forth with Grant who was eager to go on a season-opening hunt with his 2 kids. And as a happy coincidence, later that morning, we ran into Daniel and his 2 kids much further along the path we were hiking.
This was the first time the group of us had met in person person, but I was familiar with both parties because they ordered a copy of my Mazon Creek Field Guide, the aforemtentioned project that has been in the works for the past 3 years, as I explore and document different fossiliferous areas of Pit 11. We visited 2 of the sites mentioned in the eBook, in addition to an undocumented, potential future addition. By the early-mid afternoon, we had trekked about a mile and a half worth of trail, and ran into some familiar members of the Fossil Forum, Keith, Ken, Andy, Marie, and Rich, among others who were dispersed in their hidden collecting areas.

The Collecting

The collecting was great at every site we visited. Despite 2017’s low snowfall and low precipitation, many nodules eroded from the soil this season, and made for some easy surface collecting. The first site we visited is my previously undocumented location, very early along on the path to what I call “tully ridge.” It is actually not very far from the parking lot even. The finds here can be hit-or-miss, but the nodules are plentiful very nicely shaped. I have yet to isolate and freeze/thaw these, so these 3-dozen nodules are the control sample for a potentially new collecting area.

Some pre-opened concretions looked great at first,
but ultimately unveiled a blob (or a very poorly preserved jellyfish).
Site 2 we visited, was the proximity of Tully Ridge, terrain consisting of almost all steep incline that leads to the southern portion of Monster Lake. This is where things picked up. The kids had a great time traversing these steep ravines down to the water front, and found many concretions along the way. Some pre-opened ones showed some promising material for the area.

Tully ridge was a productive spot this early season, with plenty left to return for collecting.

Final Site Collecting Area

The next site is a more frequently hunted area, where we ran into some fellow collectors, some members of the Fossil Forum, hunting along the ridges about a mile and a half deep in the woods. This is much deeper into Pit 11, where the concretions are more plentiful, a welcome reward to a very long hike. A tremendous amount of these concretions are jellyfish, a common and fun find.

Below is a photograph of some pre-0pened jellies, of mixed quality, that I found on Sunday. There is some plant material and fern leaves also found in the area. I found one of the best jellyfish for my collection, as well as a nice annuleria (second photo). These were found opened due to their exposure to the elements.

Among concretions, I walked away with a couple cool photos, and even 2 animal skulls (a raccoon and a deer) found during the hike.

 

As the concretions open over the next several weeks, I will link to the resulting finds from this trip on the comments.

I’ve done solo trips to Pit 11 for years, but have made some good friends by welcoming company. You can follow via email to learn about upcoming trips. 1-2 hunts per month, with a day or 2’s notice beforehand.

For those interested, my earlier Mazon Creek trip reports can be found here:
http://chicagorants.com/tag/mazon-creek-pit-11/

You can order a copy of a limited edition poster we created, and read the story behind the design here:
http://americanfossilhunt.com/product/limited-edition-mazon-creek-2017-poster/

The most recent edition of Fossil Collecting Mazon Creek: The Ultimate Field Guide can be found here: http://americanfossilhunt.com/product/fossil-collecting-mazon-creek-pit-11-ultimate-field-guide-ebook/
or on this site’s home page: