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The Plight of a Mazon Creek Collector


Nimravis

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The collecting of Mazon Creek concretions in my opinion is one of the most disappointing ways to spend time collecting fossils. Now don't get me wrong, I have been collecting them for over 30 years and I have literally thousands of unopened concretions that will take me years to open.

 

A number of years ago I made the decision to only collect and not open any in the field. There use to be so many, that I and others would open them with hammers at Pit 11, Pit 4 and various shaft mines. But many time nothing of interest or worth keeping were found, so I would have a 2 hour trip back to Chicago with nothing but a sunburn and a couple ticks to show for my trip.

 

So I started to just collect because that way there was always a chance that I would have something special in my bucket(s).- and I have found a great amount of "special" things. There was also another reason, Illinois does not promote this vast area of fossils and due to the re-seeding and planting of the strip mines, vegetation has come back with a vengeance and the concretions, for the most part do not weather out like they use to. They are trapped again, like they have been for the last 300 MY and I knew finding them would become more difficult.

 

So now on with my plight- after 300 MY in the ground and a few years at my house, I freeze / thaw them for weeks to months at a time and after all that, most of the time I end up with nothing or something that I don't need (see pics below of a great looking concretion that opened and had nothing for me). 

 

It was very enjoyable this summer collecting at St. Leon for hash plates, etc., the Peace River for shark teeth and in Murray Co Georgia for trilobites- it felt good that everything that I collected was an actual fossil.

 

Now back to my freezer.

 

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You ever hunt any of the road cuts closer to Beloit and south of there? There was a guy who seemed to hunt a lot out that way on here(he passed away). I've never tried but it sounded promising and something different from the mazon grind.

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36 minutes ago, smt126 said:

You ever hunt any of the road cuts closer to Beloit and south of there? There was a guy who seemed to hunt a lot out that way on here(he passed away). I've never tried but it sounded promising and something different from the mazon grind.

No I have not, I will have to check into it. Thanks

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Been there, done that.  We called those empty concretions BFN's,  short for Big Fat Nothings.   Of course, all the empty concs I use to find were in northern california at a place called Scotia Bluffs. 

 

RB

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I do admit that hunting for Mazon Creek nodules is much more like gathering lottery tickets than finding fossils. I truly wish I'd have been aware of Mazon Creek when I lived up in the Chicago area. If I had known about it though I'd likely have had to take a lot of 5-gallon buckets of nodules with me when I moved to Florida. ;) As it is I have "fossil buckets" in my garage now but those are filled with unsearched micro-matrix gravels from various locations in South Florida. The fossils contained in those buckets may not be big--but at least they're small (subtle reference for Vinyl Cafe fans).

 

I've seen old black and white photos of the nodule studded spoil piles around the mining operations before the foliage grew back and it makes my heart race and my head swoon. :drool:

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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4 hours ago, RJB said:

Been there, done that.  We called those empty concretions BFN's,  short for Big Fat Nothings.   Of course, all the empty concs I use to find were in northern california at a place called Scotia Bluffs. 

 

RB

I call them "Leverites"- for leave er right there- lol

3 hours ago, digit said:

I do admit that hunting for Mazon Creek nodules is much more like gathering lottery tickets than finding fossils. I truly wish I'd have been aware of Mazon Creek when I lived up in the Chicago area. If I had known about it though I'd likely have had to take a lot of 5-gallon buckets of nodules with me when I moved to Florida. ;) As it is I have "fossil buckets" in my garage now but those are filled with unsearched micro-matrix gravels from various locations in South Florida. The fossils contained in those buckets may not be big--but at least they're small (subtle reference for Vinyl Cafe fans).

 

I've seen old black and white photos of the nodule studded spoil piles around the mining operations before the foliage grew back and it makes my heart race and my head swoon. :drool:

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Buckets full of micro is very nice- I have about 95 buckets of concretions and the majority are probably nothing - but the possibility of something is what keeps me going.

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3 hours ago, Nimravis said:

but the possibility of something is what keeps me going

 

Perfect (any yet somewhat ironic) quote for an epitaph. :P

 

The uncertainty of potential surprises is definitely what motivates me to go out and hunt for things (novel fossils, unusual minerals, antique bottles, even opportunities to photograph interesting critters both topside and underwater). I bet if every nodule in your 95 buckets contained nice fern fossils you'd still lose interest after the second bucket. It's the rare winning lottery ticket in the form of a Tully or something like a Convexicaris that keeps you keeping on.

 

I give away the vast majority of the things I find as I enjoy the experience of hunting more than the clutter of a large collection. I keep some special finds and try to distribute the rest (so I have more room to hunt more ;)). Now, when Tammy says I'm accumulating too much fossil material around the house I can use the excuse that "at least I don't have 95 buckets of nodules". That should buy me some leeway. :)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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On 2017-07-03 at 10:32 AM, Nimravis said:

I call them "Leverites"- for leave er right there- lol

 

That should be 'Leaverite' and that's an old one.. probably used all around the English-speaking world by now! Still I wonder where and when it started.

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Sorry but still love it not as easy to find as 15 years ago but there are still a lot 

of undiscovered treasures there. Me trying different tactics now,going out in boat.

vegatation to high for surface hunting.Finding a lot on shoreline and sand bars.

and getting a little fishing in double win.

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