3-5-22 Mazon Creek Collecting- Pit 11

[Nimravis]

This morning I decided to drive the 90 mile round trip to Pit 11 and do a little collecting. I only spent a few hours collecting and it was one of my least productive days ever. 

 

I headed past Godley, Illinois and made a right turn on 5000N, heading to the Mazonia South Unit.

 

 

This below is a picture of the road as you head to the Monster Lake parking area.

 

 

 

I park my car on the side of the road versus the parking lot when I am going to climb the tall hills near Monster Lake.

 

 

 

The blue dot is where I park.

 

 

The lake that is right next to the dot is Monster Lake.

 

Here is what the parking lot looks like, I parked there when I was heading to the Tipple area.

 

 

Here are a couple pictures of a frozen Monster Lake.

 

 

 

After parking on the road I headed to the hill. It is very difficult climbing at this time of the year because of the mud and the ice. Even though it has been warmer over the last couple of days, ice still remains in place on the slopes.  
 

 

I use my Estwing stick to help me up these slick slopes.

 

 

Up on top, I can see 5000N road and my car.

 

 

 

Once on top, the area it totally overgrown (see below) and this is the only time of the year I will collect up here, it is too hard to see and navigate in the Summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do use a little rake that I cut down to 18” to move some leave.

 

 

If you put the time in and you know the shape / color of the concretions, they can be found here. The below pics show concretions as I found them.

 

A crack open half of an Essexella asherae Jellyfish. This was probably opened by a collector a 30+ years ago, when no one cared about the Jellyfish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

A nice little Pecten clam, I only found the one half.

 

 

 

After I collected this hill, I moved my car to the parking lot and then crossed the street and made the long trip to the Tipple Hill. 
 

Tipple Hill was alway a favorite of collectors and some great stuff came from that location.

 

Here is the chain that you have to walk around to get to the hill.

 

 

I travel light into this area, and I only bring a plastic bag for concretions.

 

 

Back in the 80’s and 90’s, a couple of doctors from Chicago use to lease this are from Commonwealth Edison and the had a similar mobile home that they would use during hunting season. Sometimes they would open the chain so we could drive up to the Tipple area.

 

 

hThe road keeps going. There use to be a short cut to the right, but that has since overgrown.

 

 

Here are pictures of Tipple Hill, it always has a sulfur smell to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They put this fenced in area about 30 years ago, no one really knew what it was for, but it did expose concretions then and still today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t find much Flora at the Tipple, but on occasion I do. This look like a worn Annularia.

 

 

 

There is a lot of petrified wood at the Tipple, I believe most suffering from pyrite disease, but I still pick some up for the ESCONI Braceville trip.

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of coal is also found here.

 

 

Even though I did not find a lot of concretions or opened fossils, it was still a nice day.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Looks like you found about three dozen -- not too bad. Some look very promising. You need to get on some private property. Then you fill two or three 5-gallon buckets each time out.

[Nimravis]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Looks like you found about three dozen -- not too bad. Some look very promising. You need to get on some private property. Then you fill two or three 5-gallon buckets each time out.

Yes- that would be nice. I think I found only about 15 concretions.

[Wrangellian]

Thanks for the tour... Even though I've never been there I feel like I'm getting to know the place each time you guys post your trips.

Crossing fingers for some decent finds in those conc's! 

[deutscheben]

Thanks for the report, that bivalve is pretty nice! At least you got some good shaped ones too.

[Nimravis]

4 minutes ago, deutscheben said:

Thanks for the report, that bivalve is pretty nice! At least you got some good shaped ones too.

Yes- not a lot, but a couple. 

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks for the tour... Even though I've never been there I feel like I'm getting to know the place each time you guys post your trips.

Crossing fingers for some decent finds in those conc's! 

It is definitely not what it use to be, but there are still tons of concretions out in the hills, the problem is getting to them. It would be great it the State of Illinois would turn over an like the Tipple to free the concretions that are covered.

[Wrangellian]

1 hour ago, Nimravis said:

It is definitely not what it use to be, but there are still tons of concretions out in the hills, the problem is getting to them. It would be great it the State of Illinois would turn over an like the Tipple to free the concretions that are covered.

You're right, but I guess it's somewhat of a miracle that it has survived (accessible, undeveloped, somewhat productive despite popularity) as long as it has.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks for your usual plethora of great photos.

Very glad that you had a good day out. 

[siteseer]

On 3/5/2022 at 10:17 PM, Wrangellian said:

You're right, but I guess it's somewhat of a miracle that it has survived (accessible, undeveloped, somewhat productive despite popularity) as long as it has.

 

Right, I'll take "less productive" over "long gone" every time - too many of the latter now.  So many great sites in California and elsewhere are built on or landscaped over now.

[siteseer]

On 3/5/2022 at 8:21 PM, Nimravis said:

Yes- not a lot, but a couple. 

 

Hi Nimravus,

 

Thanks for the report.  It's always interesting to see what other collectors go through while hunting.  I've never hunted the Carboniferous.

 

Jess

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Hi Nimravus,

 

Thanks for the report.  It's always interesting to see what other collectors go through while hunting.  I've never hunted the Carboniferous.

 

Jess

Jess- it is no fun, lol.

[Mark Kmiecik]

14 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Hi Nimravus,

 

Thanks for the report.  It's always interesting to see what other collectors go through while hunting.  I've never hunted the Carboniferous.

 

Jess

In Illinois the Carboniferous is highly overgrown.