A Quick Trip To The Mazon Creek South Unit in Late April
Like the past 3 years, it has so far been a very late spring here. While the rest of the U.S. is enjoying 60-degree plus weather, Chicagoland is still recovering from the last blanket of snow.
This weekend though, was the first taste of spring. 2 of us used the opportunity to do a brief trip to the South Unit to see what the winter erosion has left us in regards to concretions of the old coal mine that is Mazon Creek.
From about 9-11:30 am, we collected the North end of Monster Lake. The hike in took some time, but was at least feasible at this time of year. By late June this area will be un-collectable (except for by boat or kayak)
There is a bare hill, about a 30-minute hike in that we found to be fairly productive in finding concretions. It is rare to find these open areas in the Mazon Creek collecting spots.
The hills within a few hundred yards of this area are quite good too. Too the West, smaller concretions, to the East, larger ones.
The forest and grass-laden hills around this hill are riddled with fossils. But it takes some time and patience to find them.
The find of the day was a Pecopteris leaf, found and opened gently on the spot.
This small leaf sat in a small tomb for 300 million years. Yesterday, it saw the sun for the first time since before the dinosaurs.
Despite missing the top of the fossil, this is a fairly good find these days. And I am excited about it!
It will hold a spot in my display case for many years, to remember the first spring day and first intense hike of 2018.
The Mazon Creek Book
The book was a very big project. It was in the works for a few years. It was just available as an eBook for the first 3 years. As I continued to explore and prospect fossil-producing hills of the South Unit, I had many trips where I found almost nothing. But after years of searching, I’ve found where in Pit 11 to find the best concretions. There is not a lot of information on where to go to collect in the overgrown jungle Pit 11 has become- which is why I created this site and book. Without this book, a first-time collector might be in the position I was years ago, and not find much at all.
The Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area is a beautiful area to hike, kayak, fish, and fossil hunt. I’d like to everyone enjoy it as much as I have. The book includes many maps and how-to’s in collecting fossils in this State Park.
I have not posted or promoted the guidebook to Pit 11 recently because, while the eBook will be available, the print book is limited to just 100 copies.
There are still a handful available (as of this post on 4/23/2018), at the link below if you are interested in owning a copy:
I think ran into you guys last Sunday at the Monster Lake parking lot.
Good to see you guys had a productive trip. I myself had a pretty good haul that day.
I was actually using the DNR fossil permit from your website that day, thank you for that. For some reason the DNR website no longer has the permit.
Any plans on attending the ESCONI Braceville trip next month?
Hi great meeting you and thanks for the comment and finding the site! Hope you did well out there on the lake. You find anything that opened up already? Normally I am down to hang and chat for a bit when we ran into you, but we had just finished a very grueling hike out of the woods on the North end of monster lake and were totally wiped lol
and yes the permit is near impossible to find online, its one of the reasons I created this site, along with documenting collecting trips like this one.
I will be at the Braceville trip, it seems that hill is hit or miss, but I went home with quite a few last year and will be going saturday, you?
-andrew
I freeze/thawed a few nodules already. So far some ferns, clam shells, and unidentifiable fossils.
Yep, I’ll be at the Braceville trip this Saturday as well.
See you there!
cool and excellent to hear.
unfortunately I am celebrating mothers day Saturday and sunday would be the day I would go. Though it looks like it may rain both days so I am not sure if I will make it.
Hey! I’ve got a few different fossils that I believe are parts of Tully Monsters, I’ve collected from a particular spot NOT in the Mazon area, but in Kankakee River State Park.
The thing is, when I look at pictures of Tully Monster fossils online, everything I see is flattened. Compressed monsters. But the fossils I have are in full “3D” – in other words, not squashed. Two of them were just lying visible on the ground (one “positive”, one “negative”) and one is from a rock I broke open.
So, my question for you, and I’m asking you because you seem to be someone with some knowledge of these things is… are these kinds of full-thickness fossils unusual? Why don’t I see pictures like this online? One of the fossils I have actually seems to show, sort-of clearly, a notocord sort of structure.
It’s not especially hard to find these in the spot I’m thinking of. So I feel like it can’t be that special. But is it?
Hi John thanks for the comment! I’d love to see a photo of the rocks to see if I can help ID them. Would you like to send a photo to americanfossilhunt@gmail.com? Its possible these are another type of fossil that I might be able to help you find their origin. Unfortunately, its unlikely that it is a tully monster. Our state fossil has only been found in concretion-type material in the coal beds of the Mazon Creek formation, round concretions that are split open to reveal a relatively flat creature or plant. I have heard of a handful of Tully Monsters found in Mazon Creek-type concretions in Southern Illinois, but also in a deep-dug mine of some sort. I’d still be curious to see a picture if you’d like to share!
-Andrew
Is your book still available for purchase in print?
The single broad leaf specimen you keep calling Pecopteris is Neuropteris specimen. How long have you been collecting? I was collecting there 30 years ago and have a good collection of flora — not very much fauna because of the sites I collected were up around Lorenzo Road, mostly. I collected mostly on private property where I had gotten permission to hunt, and some areas that became temporarily available, like Cedar Ridge golf course. E-mail me if you want to discuss some of the “really good but off limits” sites that you may be able to get permission to hunt for fossils.