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fossilized6s

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Last year my son and I took a trip to one of my favorite museums, the Kenosha County Public Museum. This museum isn't the biggest, BUT it's free, very educational, beautiful, kid friendly and the dioramas are unforgettable. While there I noticed that they had mislabeled a simple pyrite blob for a critter that I am way too familiar with, the Essexella Jellyfish. So last Saturday I took full advantage of the warm weather that had blown in (a blazing 55 degrees) thawing us from our wintery grip, and made the hour trip to donate a proper Jellyfish. I also decided to donate a few more Mazon Creek fauna pieces that they didn't have.

For most of you that don't know this, Kenosha County has been one of the best spots to find complete ice age mega fauna in the US for the last hundred years or so. Located on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan, the Kenosha Public Museum proudly houses a cast from a local find of the most complete Mammoth ever found in the US. It also has a recreated dig sight from a local find as well of a rare Mammoth butcher site. All of these were found about 30mins from my home. But unlike most mega fauna hunters, I don't have the luxury of rivers to sift. These fossils are either under wetlands, 4'-10' of clay or are in a neighborhood with a house sitting on top of them. Because of this though when they are found they are usually almost complete and well preserved. To this day there is still a Mastodon under a local lake that I will not name. Hopefully funding will come soon so it can be finally uncovered, and I can only hope to volunteer my time to be a part of it. I'm getting off topic.......

I highly recommend anyone that is visiting the Chicago or Milwaukee area to take a walk through the Kenosha Public Museum. It is small, but jammed packed with simple to understand information. The dioramas are just amazing. If you're at all interested in woodland Native American culture, this is the place for you. As most museums do, it has a timeline walkway that brings you from creation to modern day. This museum also has many other things to do and see, and it sits next door to a Civil War Museum and just down the street from the Dino Museum.

The pyrite smear that I will call the Golden Ghost Faux Jelly.

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My chosen donated fossils (Jellyfish, associated group of Jellys, shrimp, shrimp molt, sea cucumber, coprolite and a Macroneuropteris.

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continued......

Edited by fossilized6s
  • I found this Informative 3

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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After the museum trip, I decided to jump the border and go for a quick walk/hunt on the shores of Lake Michigan.

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The Whitetail deer here are not too afraid of humans. This is how close you can get to these awesome creatures.

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Usually Cephalopods, crinoids, gastropods, etc. are found here. But if you're lucky you can find Crinoid cups in the Limestone Dolomite (which I was). It's not the greatest piece, but I'm happy.

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Hope you enjoyed my Saturday, I did. And sorry about my pictures. I just got a new phone that takes huge high res pics, so I had to dial these down to post. And I think I may have made them too small. Ugh.....you live and learn.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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Wow Charlie, you're amazing and I'm sure the museum is thankful of your contribution to their facility. I must say, that place has more fossils than the Milwaukee Public Museum which is sad seeing MPM sits on the world's biggest silurian reef, Schoonmaker Reef.

Thanks for sharing!

Best regards,

Paul

...I'm back.

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Thanks for the virtual tour, Charlie. Looks interesting enough that I think we'll have to put that on our agenda next time we're up in the Chicago area. Maybe we'll contact you and you can be our tour guide. :)

Officially added to my bucket list.

Cheers.

-Ken

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  • 1 month later...

Also nearby is the dinosaur museum which is free too

Also nearby is the dinosaur museum which is free too

Edited by smt126
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  • 4 weeks later...

Just saw this now... That looks like a pretty good museum for whatever size... Lots of good dioramas and fossil displays. I'd like to see larger pics of the fossils if you still have the larger photos and get around to posting them.

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