By Mary Fairchild
“The Mazon Creek flora is renowned for being almost completely collected by amateurs. Since 1858, in an area covering approximately 100 square miles, untold numbers of collectors have gathered fossils in quantities unprecedented in North America.” Jack Wittry
In the mid-1990s when our family first became interested in collecting fossils our electric bill promoted the location of a collecting area right at the Braidwood nuclear power plant. Later, we would learn that this was the famous Mazon Creek collecting area. The area, which had once been the Peabody Coal Pit 11 was now a cooling pond for the Braidwood nuclear power plant. This area is also the location of the Illinois State Fossil, a strange wormlike “Tully monster” named after its collector, Francis Tully.
We gathered up our family, backpacks and bikes and headed out to the area where we met a boater who told us about the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois (ESCONI) when we asked where to look for fossils in the area. ESCONI was a great way to meet with others who share our interests. Members since 1996, our family has been active in ESCONI for over a decade now. Our family was interviewed for an article in the local paper: “Fossil Hunters Dig the Past in Illinois or Out West, Suburban Residents Seek Bits of History”– Red Orbit
During our first year we attended the Mid America Paleontology Society( MAPS) show and continued on with various events with ESCONI which included field trips to Ontario Canada , St. Paul, Indiana, Ohio for trilobites, Kentucky for flourite, and Missouri for barite to name a few.
We had the great opportunity to become friends with the late members Don Auler and Andy Hay. Don Auler, known in the rock hound community with his wife Dorothy for donating much time and effort to further the earth sciences, would illustrate books and personally teach our children how to watercolor paint. Andy would go on to illustrate the Richardson’s Guide to Mazon Creek with Dr. Charles Shabica .
The Richardson’s Guide was dedicated to the late Field Museum paleontologist Eugene Richardson who founded the Mazon Creek Project in the 1960s.It was a program sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University whose main goal was to keep the Mazonia-Braidwood Conservation Area open for collecting by scientists, school children, scout groups, visitors from other states and others. It was also an attempt to encourage more communication between paleontologists and amateur collectors.
The ESCONI general meeting is the second Friday of each month at 8pm at the College of Dupage and the annual show is held in March.
Related
- Dinner With Frederick Schram (Mazon Creek Fossils)
- Dinosaur Bone Hunting(Wyoming; South Dakota; Paleo Prospectors)
- Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art: Chinese Jade Carvings, Fossils, and Minerals
- Mazon Creek Fossils (Illinois fossils)
- Mid-America Paleontology Society Annual Fossil Show Moves to Iowa
- Paul Sereno: African Dinosaurs Exhibit 2011
- Sea Change and Sea Kayaking (Door County; Dolostone; Niagara Escarpment; Mazon Creek)
- Wisconsin’s Glacial Mounds