First Time at Mazon Creek

[Praefectus]

Hello,

 

I am planning on going to Mazon Creek for the first time this weekend and was wondering if I could get some advice. I have fossil hunted at the Peace river and Shark Tooth Hill, but despite living in Illinois, I have never been to Mazon creek.

 

I am not sure where I should start looking. I have read some of the trip reports on the forum and most seem to suggest either around Pit 11 or south of W 5000N road. How long does it usually take to get to productive spots? I read that some people have to hike for an hour before finding fossils. Also, where should I park my car?

 

How much time is usually spent at Mazon creek? Is it an all-day event or just a few hours? I was planning on attending the ESCONI gem, mineral, and fossil show on Saturday morning (3/23) and then heading Mazon creek afterwards. Will I have enough time? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Can't really help as I've never been, though do have a few fossils from Mazon Creek. 

Just wanted to say, "Good luck!" 

@Nimravis

[Nimravis]

9 hours ago, Praefectus said:

I am not sure where I should start looking. I have read some of the trip reports on the forum and most seem to suggest either around Pit 11 or south of W 5000N road. How long does it usually take to get to productive spots? I read that some people have to hike for an hour before finding fossils. Also, where should I park my car?

Pit 11 is where W 5000N is located. There are parking areas along that road, but I usually just pull off on to the side of the road. As far as areas, the whole area has concretions, finding them is a different issue. You can check the sides of the hills and areas around Monster Lake, it just takes a good eye and perseverance. You can hike around for an hour and find nothing and then you could hike for 15 minutes and find a bunch, it is just the luck of the draw on what has weathered out and what has not been collected.

 

Seeing that you are going to ESCONI, it all depends on the time that you leave the show. I would think that it is about 90 minutes to get to the Tipple area and I believe the sun sets around 7 pm now, so you should have some time to hunt. Just make sure that you are not out at sunset, because if you venture far from your car, you can get turned around and have a problem getting back. Believe me on this, it has happened to me once when I climbed one of the tall hills on W 5000N and went farther in and over other hills, I got turned around and if not for Google Earth, I would probably still be out there, and that was 2 years ago- LOL.

 

Good luck and hopefully you find something. 

[deutscheben]

It can pretty tough finding concretions on your first visit to Pit 11/Mazonia-Braidwood. The area is very overgrown and a lot of it is luck and determination when you are first starting out- two gullies 15 feet apart could be totally different depending on what was dumped where in the mining process. 

 

All that being said, it is definitely still possible to find fossils if you have a willingness to bushwhack and get down close to the dirt. Like @Nimravis said, the area near Monster Lake, in particular to the north and east of it, as well as the far south of it, are good places to start. Here is a map with some very general areas indicated where you might have luck:

 

 

The line across the top is W 5000 N Rd. Good luck and happy hunting!

[RCFossils]

Best of luck!

i would give yourself at least five or six hours to hike around the area.

Keep in mind that with the Spring thaw, the area has been heavily collected. The further you can get off the trails, the better the chance of finding concretions.

The larger better known exposures will have already been scoured over multiple times.

The good thing is there will be no bugs!

Let us know what you find.

[Praefectus]

Thanks for the advice and support @Tidgy's Dad @Nimravis @deutscheben @RCFossils 

I will post pictures and a summary of how things go.

[Praefectus]

Sorry for the slow response. I've been busy and haven't been able to be on the forum much. 

 

Mazon Creek was great. I got there around midday and spent most of my time south of the W 5000 N road. The forest was very dense and difficult to get through at times. I grabbed any rock that I thought looked like a concretion. Upon cleaning them up, I don't think I found much (I think I might have been looking for the wrong stuff). I still have a bucket half-filled with rocks that may be concretions that I have to look at. 

 

I look forward to going back but I think I'll wait until one of the local rock clubs hosts an organized field trip so I can be with someone experienced. 

 

Thanks again to all who gave me advice.

[Praefectus]

Below are some of the things I found. I think they are the type of rock that contain fossils. I couldn't see anything inside these ones though. 

[Praefectus]

Even though I didn't find any myself, I still got some Mazon Creek fossils. I put the fossils I picked up at the ESCONI fossil fair in a riker mount with some similar aged plants. 

[Praefectus]

Unrelated - Here is a cool Cretoxyrhina tooth I picked up from the MAPS fossil expo last friday. There were tables of Mazon Creek fossils there too, but I think I've had enough of those for a while. 

 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Just a little late to help you. I've been collecting Mazon Creek since '91, and I try to stay away from the spots that are open to the public. My best spots have all been on private property. The way you get to collect those spots is to knock on doors, ring doorbells and introduce yourself and briefly explain that you collect fossils and would like to ask permission to collect a few rocks from their land. Keep it short and sweet -- get to the point in two short sentences or less. Then shut up and just stand there and wait. One of two things will happen. The landowner will say no or he will say yes. If he says no, thank him politely and leave. If he says yes, thank him politely and ask when would it be a good time for him. They will usually say something like "you're already here, so go ahead and look now". Nine out of ten times the answer will be no. But if you ring 100 doorbells you'll have ten spots to collect that no one else has access to. Once in a while bring a small token of appreciation to the people who's land you hunt. One of the fossils you found there, a bottle of wine, a toy for their kids, etc. It doesn't have to be expensive. Get the phone number on your first visit so you can call and let them know the next time you want to come out. I had seven collecting sites back in the day, and I could not possibly cover any more than two of them in a 12-hour collecting day. Good luck. Trust me, getting on private property is worth its weight in gold.

P.S. -- don't dig. Tell the owner that you will only collect what is lying on the surface. The rain and snow will expose the concretions so all you have to do is pick them up. You can carry an old screwdriver for the ones that are showing but need a little prying to loosen up, but don't create holes on other people's property. 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Mark Kmiecik