Mazon Creek Pit 11 Fossil Collecting- March 25, 2019

Mazonia Pit 11 Season Opener (ish)

After a long winter, collecting season is finally here and we are slowly coming out of hibernation! The earliest that weather and time allowed to collect Pit 11 for me was March 25 this year. The weather was perfect hiking weather, sunny with highs in the mid-40s.

On this hunt, I had the pleasure of collecting with Stacy, the owner of Darwin and Wallace and his friend Greg, who were working at C2E2 in Chicago. Darwin and Wallace is a nature and fossil store that travels around the US, selling fossils, oddities, and curiosities. I have been following their Instagram page for a couple years now and always enjoy seeing their posts. It was a real treat to meet him in person and hunt for Tully Monsters in Pit 11 on such a perfect day!

They arrived in their famous fossil truck, which navigated the dirt road into the South Unit far better than my little sedan (also, it is worth noting, there were some County workers taking many measurements on 5000 N Rd off Route 31 in apparent plans to grade the road for easier access, which would be great!).

From there, we entered the South Unit of Pit 11 for some hiking and collecting. This year’s hard freezes and snowfall primed the terrain for a good collecting year.

Along the trail we went, looking for treasures on the way. We had stopped at a few spots that have been productive in the past, but had little luck, we had to go all the way to the very southern part of the South Unit. It’s a long hike, but a nice one, filled with the sounds of tree frogs along the path, and a bald eagle soaring overhead.

One of the first cool finds, was a gar skin in the middle of the forest. It was likely a victim of the bald eagle, or perhaps a raccoon, that flew or dragged the fish very far from the water for a meal.

From then on, we were in the right area, and fossils and concretions started exposing themselves from the hills.

Among other treasures…

After a missed attempt to find the waters edge, we made it down the steep hills, and found some very productive spots along the way.

After a good 4 hours or so of hiking and collecting we headed out.

I’d say we fared well on this trip. Of course we didn’t fill an entire bucket as was possible decades ago, but everyone went home with some pre-opened Jellyfish, essexella asherae, many ferns and plant material, and some promising concretions to take home to freeze/thaw.

In an added bonus, I had a bag of concretions from the season before in my car. We cracked them for an hour or so in the parking lot. Unfortunately, the ratio was rather poor. This bag was a collection of mine that had been through about a dozen freeze/thaw cycles over the winter, but these were the stubborn ones that did not crack open, and needed a little assistance from a hammer. If they don’t open from that many freeze/thaw cycles, it is increasingly likely that there is no fossil material inside.

However, the bag did yield some fun finds! and lots of pyrite blobs.

I gave most everything that opened to Stacy and Greg, however there was a very nice shrimp in the mix (my favorite thing to find!), that I took home for the collection.

This one reminds me of a cicada, and its a bit unique that it has both halves, but they are completely separated.

Here was our mystery one. Could it be another decapitated shrimp? Stacy or Greg took this one home for cleaning and more study.

Overall, it was a very fun, but late season opener for me. Hope everyone else is enjoying the start of the 2019 collecting season! if you find anything you’d like to share, I’d love to see it or post it on this blog! email me at americanfossilhunt (at) gmail.com.