E.S.C.O.N.I. Braceville Shaft Mine Trip

[Nimravis]

Today I went on the E.S.C.O.N.I. (Earth Science Club Of Northern Illinois) fossil collecting trip for Mazon Creek concretions to the Braceville Shaft Mine in Braceville, Illinois. It was a great day for the trip since it had rained recently and exposed a lot of concretions that made surface collecting great, that coupled with great overcast skies and temps in the upper 60's. It was a great day had by all and there must have been hundreds of concretions collected.

 

Here is are a couple Aerial shots of the Shaft Mine.

 

 

 

We met at 8 am and most people stayed until 2 pm. Most of the participants, about 40, have been to this site before and new what they were looking for. It great to see people drive as far away as Wisconsin and leave with some nice concretions.

 

A couple hours into collecting, buckets of open concretions were dumped out so the participants could search through the pile and pull out what ever caught their fancy. I brought 3 bucket full of stuff to dump and Rich @stats brought a bucket full and I believe one other person brought some.

 

Here are people from the group searching for some open concretions- there were concretions from Braceville, Pit 11(Essex Biota) and Pit 4 (Braidwood Biota) in the pile. 

 

 

It was great to meet Rich and a couple other Fossil Forum members-Ben @deutscheben and @Lisa102 or as she calls herself "Mud Girl"- . I know that their were other members in attendance, but I am notoriously bad at names and I apologize in advance. I usually never get in pictures, but I thought why not today- it was good day.

 

Here I am with Rich @stats I am the one with the Snoopy bandana- I usually wear that on most fossil trips, but always backpacking, it is like a good luck charm.

 

 

 

Here I am with Ben @deutscheben .

 

 

Here is Lisa @Lisa102 , you can see why she calls herself "Mud Girl"- I give her huge "Props", she was always high up on the spoil pile and collecting some really nice concretions.

 

 

I know this is Andy, but do not know his FF Tag.

 

 

I am now going to group the rest of my pictures into 3 topics and I will start with pictures of the area. If you look at the first 2 pics, you can see pieces of boards sticking out, these are remnants of the mine (late 1890's ?) and maybe some trackways the were used by mules to pull out carts. One member found a horseshoe today that would have belonged to a mule. In years past, I also found similar horseshoes and old bottles.

 

 

 

 

You get to the top by going up these gullies. It is important to look for concretions as you go up, because the rain causes them to roll down from the top- it is as just important to look for them on the way down, since a different perspective reveals more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are some pictures of some of the concretions that I collected. I shot these so you can see how they are found in the dirt and also in the shale.

 

 

An opened Essexella asherae Jellyfish-

 

 

My haul for the day-

 

[Trevor]

Lovely pictures and awesome haul! Looks like it was the perfect day for collecting.

[Nimravis]

And last but not least, some more pics of the participants.

 

Some more pics of Ben and his dad-

 

 

Ben's dad walking the Concretion Tightrope.

 

 

 

Other ESCONI members-

 

 

 

A couple little members enjoying the day.

 

 

Rich and Andy making the movie "Holes 2"-  and I believe that is Larry supervising.

 

 

 

Lisa finding a great concretion up near the top.

 

 

 

Laying down on the job and how to get down from the top, Water Park way- by sliding and letting the loose dirt carry you to the bottom.

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

10 minutes ago, Trevor said:

Lovely pictures and awesome haul! Looks like it was the perfect day for collecting.

Thanks Trevor, It was a good time.

[Miocene_Mason]

Thanks for sharing! It gives an insight to those of us who have never collected in that area into what you guys do. It also adds a whole new layer of awe when I see how many buckets you have! 

[caldigger]

Thank you for the perspective of how the concretions are situated.

 Is this a place that you have to sign a liability waiver? It looks like the availability of injury could be rather high.

[Nimravis]

Just now, WhodamanHD said:

Thanks for sharing! It gives an insight to those of us who have never collected in that area into what you guys do. It also adds a whole new layer of awe when I see how many buckets you have! 

Thanks- that is what I try to do so people can understand what it is like collecting these concretions. One word caution, the amount of concretions that were collected by all of the participants or even the bucket that I walked away with is not typical for other areas, such as the famous Pit 11 area. That area is very over grown and you have to work very hard to just find a couple concretions. I could probably spend 2-8 hour days at Pit 11 and come nowhere near what I found today. Though you can find great items here, like I have recently in my other on-going post, you really find the "sexy" stuff at Pit 11.

[Nimravis]

9 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Thank you for the perspective of how the concretions are situated.

 Is this a place that you have to sign a liability waiver? It looks like the availability of injury could be rather high.

Doren, many years ago when I would collect there with my son, I believe it was owned by a farmer and he did not have a problem with me collecting there. I use to be able to drive my car right up to the hill- the below picture, and the area was a lot bigger then (1995). Now it is posted as "No Trespassing" and I believe that it is owned by a construction company who gives ESCONI permission to collect there twice a year and Liability waivers are required.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Super report, Ralph, very interesting, lovely to see the concretions in situ and the other TFOers and ESCONI members. 

Great photos, and, as usual, thanks for sharing, looks like a fun day out. 

[Nimravis]

Just now, Tidgy's Dad said:

Super report, Ralph, very interesting, lovely to see the concretions in situ and the other TFOers and ESCONI members. 

Great photos, and, as usual, thanks for sharing, looks like a fun day out. 

It was Adam, you would have had a blast. I try to take everyone along with the pics that I take.

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

It was Adam, you would have had a blast. I try to take everyone along with the pics that I take.

You certainly succeeded. 

It gives me a pretty decent idea of what it would be like. 

Thank you. 

[caldigger]

So was this "hill" created by a mine tailings pile or was the mine stripped down around this area?

[Nimravis]

One of the reasons that this pile is a lot smaller now, than in the years past, is that there was construction on the bridge that went over Interstate 55 and they took tons of dirt and concretions to use for fill on the 4 sides of the road right out side of the Shaft Mine entrance. I have to say, it was a great 2 weeks of collecting at that time, the dirt was spread out and the concretions were calling my name.

 

[Nimravis]

3 minutes ago, caldigger said:

So was this "hill" created by a mine tailings pile or was the mine stripped down around this area?

This was the site of an old shaft mine and I would say it is the tailings- besides concretions you also fine coal. This pic shows a concretion, coal and an opened Essexella asherae Jellyfish. I always wondered how they filled the shaft mines, I know of one shaft mine that is totally flat and you would not known one existed. 

 

[Nimravis]

54 minutes ago, caldigger said:

So was this "hill" created by a mine tailings pile or was the mine stripped down around this area?

The hill was created by the mine tailings- at least that is what I believe.

[fossilized6s]

Nice pics. Looks like good collecting this year. I stopped going a few years ago. I never found anything great there. Though i have seen some nice egg cases from there.

 

Your pictures actually make me want to go now. Lol

[Nimravis]

45 minutes ago, fossilized6s said:

Nice pics. Looks like good collecting this year. I stopped going a few years ago. I never found anything great there. Though i have seen some nice egg cases from there.

 

Your pictures actually make me want to go now. Lol

Ditto as far as going, I have not been there in +10 years. They have another trip going out tomorrow.

[ynot]

You will never get through all Your buckets if You keep refilling them.

Looks like You had fun.

Thanks for showing what the area looks like.

[stats]

Ralph, It was great to meet you in person!  This is an excellent post... very informative, just like your other ones! 

 

It was an awesome day... fairly cool, no rain, and fossils!  It was good to see and meet new and old friends.

 

Here is a picture of my finds today...  2.5 gallon bucket.  Probably about the same as yours.

 

Some of the better ones will end up in the freezer very soon, but others will await winter in the backyard.  All in all a good collection of "nuts" for winter freeze thaw. 

 

ESCONI does this twice a year (May and September).  If you can make it, come on out next year!  Pit 11 is another great place to visit.  You can visit now, but it's much better in the early Spring, before the mosquitoes, ticks, and plants get going.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

 

 

[stats]

2 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Doren, many years ago when I would collect there with my son, I believe it was owned by a farmer and he did not have a problem with me collecting there. I use to be able to drive my car right up to the hill- the below picture, and the area was a lot bigger then (1995). Now it is posted as "No Trespassing" and I believe that it is owned by a construction company who gives ESCONI permission to collect there twice a year and Liability waivers are required.

 

 

Back in the early 2000s, there was a tree at the top of the hill.

 

Cheers,

Rich

[Wrangellian]

Nice trip report, Ralph. Be thankful for the distances between that place and the audience you're posting it for (like me!), or we'd all be landing on that site like seagulls, you having shown us how to get there and do it.  I would not have known there were still spots you could find so many conc's in a day! (Not after today, I guess)

That pile looks like something out of the badlands!

[stats]

1 hour ago, Nimravis said:

The hill was created by the mine tailings- at least that is what I believe.

 

That is correct.  I have heard the mine goes back to at least the 1880s and maybe a far as 1858.  Somewhere, I have an underground map of the mine and a picture of the spoil pile from way back.  I'll look around for them.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Innocentx]

It's good to be able to put a face with those amazing hands I'm always seeing. Thanks for showing how this nodule collecting works!

 

Patty

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, ynot said:

You will never get through all Your buckets if You keep refilling them.

Looks like You had fun.

Thanks for showing what the area looks like.

Lol- I was thinking the same thing Tony.