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It's Summer And You Want To Go To Pit 11 For Mazon Creek Fossils


Nimravis

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This is a statement that I often make to myself throughout the Summer and the vast majority of the time I decide to stay home. This was not the case in decades past and it is not because I am older and slowing down, which is definitely not the case, the main culprit is vegetation.

 

Today I had the idea of going to the Pit and taking pictures of the area so new collectors can see areas that they collect at and also see the conditions that they will face in the summertime. I usually go to the Pit at the beginning of the fossil collecting season (March 1st), this is your best chance to find concretions since there is no foliage. Now I also am not saying that there are no fossils to be found in the summertime, I found some today and I was not really looking, it is just that much more difficult and when you add the ticks and mosquito's into the mix, it makes for a real fun day.- NOT.

 

So this morning I left at about 8:00 am for the 45 mile drive to Pit 11, I brought a small backpack and a hammer along with my mountain bike, I was really glad that I brought it. I road up and down hills, road through mud and water and across flat lands with 3+ foot vegetation- after 4 hours I decided to leave.

 

This Post is PICTURE HEAVY and will take SEVERAL POSTS to complete, so bear with me- I will include screen shots of aerial views as well as a couple pictures from about 20 years ago to show how things have changed. This post should also help the new comer get acquainted with the area the so they gain hopefully have better success when collecting. If others have pictures or other things that they will like to add, please feel free to do that. 

 

The first area that I stopped is an place that we use to call "Inside the cooling lakes". Years ago before they made this all access entrance, we had to enter on the other side of the cooling lakes at a location called "Fossil Gate". This was an area that was only opened on Saturdays and Sundays and it was manned by a guard from the Nuclear Power Plant. Cars would line up and when the guard opened the gate, you had to show your collecting pass and he would double check it against cards that they had with our signature. Once everything was cleared, you were free to drive in and find your area to collect. There were times when only me and my son were out collecting and the guard would wait in the shack until 4 pm when we left, it was pretty sweet.

 

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Mazonia / Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area

 

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This is an aerial shot of where you turn in for the Mazonia area that allows access into the cooling lakes. The island that you see below is Turino Hill and it is about the only place that is still free of vegetation on the sides of the hill. I collected this area a few times with a friend that had a boat, there are fossils to be found there. The other shot shows the parking lot where you will leave your car. After you park and you are getting ready to go collect, if you are facing the lake, you want to go down the road to your right. I have never found anything on the road to the left, except fishermen. 

 

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Here is an aerial shot that shows the other islands that you can collect on if you have a boat.

 

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Here are a pictures of Turino Hill- On top of the hill there is a flag.

 

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Here is a picture of Turino Hill and the Nuclear Reactors to the right.

 

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A close up-

 

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Here is the road to the right, you can go past the chain blocking the path, it is there so no vehicles drive down the road. Again, before they made this entrance we had access to that road, only from farther down it- it saved a lot of walking.

 

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You can check for concretions along the shore, but at this time of the year it gets really rough to get to the shore as you continue down the road, as shown below.

 

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I crossed the chain and continued down the road on my bike for about 15 minutes until I arrived at an area that I use to collect at in the Summertime- it has really changed. Below are some older pictures of how it use to look.

 

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As you can see from the pictures above, there were plenty of places to collect concretions that were weathering out of the sides of the spoil piles.

 

Here is an aerial shot of where this collecting area is.

 

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I will show pictures of how this area looks now in the NEXT POST.

 

 

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Here is how it looks now in the Summertime, I believe it would be a lot better in March. Even though the above aerial view shows a barren area on the "flat", this is what it really looks like.

 

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One you walk past the "Flat", you come to the "Rivulets", this is what we would call the grooved out areas between the mounds where the concretions were more abundant. You can find concretions on the "Flats", but you need to look for barren patches of land, such as this.

 

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"Rivulet" area-

 

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As you can tell from the the above pictures, Nature has taken over, further entombing the much sought after concretions. I will stop back at this location in March and check it out, there are still a lot of concretions to be found around that area.

 

After bushwhacking through this area it was time to get on my bike, ride the 15 minutes down the road and head to the car so I could go to the Tipple Area.

 

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In the Next Post, I will show the Tipple Area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After exiting the parking area of the Cooling Lake area you drive back out to 31 and make a left and drive a short distance to 5000N and turn left on to the gravel road.

 

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A short drive down this road will bring you to the Monster Lake parking lot. 

 

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About 500 feet before you reach the parking lot, you will notice another gravel road on your left that has a chain across it. This is the easiest way for you to get to the Tipple Area- you can cross this chain.

 

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In years past, we there was no parking lot and we would just park on the side of the road. Below is a picture from a Braidwood Library trip that I assisted on in 1992 and at that time you could just walk across the road and continue to the Tipple, you can't do that now in the summer.

 

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Here is an aerial shot that explains what I am talking about a little better, the Blue dot is the parking lot.

 

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Here are some still shots from a video of the Tipple Area that I took during that trip. 

 

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Even back then is was often difficult for "Newbies" to find fossils,  so my son who was 9 years at the time and me would would drive out to the Tipple, prior to the bus arriving and "salt" the area with opened concretions that contained fossils. It was always nice to see a kid or adult find one and we would praise them for having found their own 300 Million Year Old fossil- and No, we did not tell them that we "salted" the area.

 

You may have seen a prior post of mine that had these aerial shots, but I figured that I will also add them here to show how Nature has taken over. These pictures are of the Tipple Area- exact same shots, just different years.

 

1971-

 

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1993-

 

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I will continue on the Next Post-

 

 

 

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2012-

 

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This is the best place to enter the Tipple Area in the Summer (Yellow arrow)- the Green arrow is the road that you walk down after parking your car in the lot.

 

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As you walk down the road to the Tipple Area, you will pass this Hunting shack on your left, or what is left of it. About 20+ years ago, Coomonwealth Edison leased this area to some doctors who would stay there to hunt, during hunting season.

 

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The below picture is what you will see when you get to the location of the Yellow arrow.

 

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Here is what the Tipple area looks like now- there are still plenty of barren areas and I do not think Nature will ever be able to grow things here.

 

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More pics of the Tipple Area and the Next Post-

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Here is a picture of the road to the Tipple, I am glad I had my bike to go through this water.

 

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Here are more pics of the area-

 

One note about the rocks at the Tipple, a lot of the area has an orange look to it as all rocks seem to be dyed that color I believe from the iron. As you get familiar with Mazon Creek concretions, you can tell the difference between rock and concretion but the sound of  a light hammer strike. To my ear a rock has a “ping” sound and a concretion has more of a “thud” sound. I know this is not scientific, but it has never failed me.

 

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I never find anything in this light colored area.

 

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You can still find remnants of coal mining- pieces of machinery and of course coal.

 

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Of course concretions are also found here and this was and is still my favorite place to collect Mazon Creek fossils.

 

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Can you spot this one?

 

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It has the perfect shape that you want.

 

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I also found pieces of petrified wood.

 

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These pieces appear to be pyritized.

 

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Of course glacial erratic's are also found around the pit.

 

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There are other barren areas on the "Flats" to collect if you continue down the road, it is just finding them. I attempted to pin point some, but the mud was impossible on the bike.

 

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I will continue down the 5000N in the Next Post.

 

 

 

 

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The below pic is almost near the entrance to the parking lot for Monster Lake (the road is 5000N), you can see a tall hill off to the right, that is a great place to go to in the Spring, I have found a couple "Tully" parts that weathered out from that hill. If you can get to the top of it, there are concretions to be found. One suggestion, bring your phone with GPS, it is very easy to get turned around once you start going up and down those hills.

 

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One thing to mention about this road, it is a good thing to check the sides of the road, not for concretions weathering out, but for concretions that are dumped by people. On a couple occasions we found tons of concretions that were dumped and contained fossils, a friend found a fish one time. I believe that they were dumped by family members of collectors who had passed.

 

Before we leave the Monster Lake area, I want to touch on it a bit. There are concretions to be found around the edges of the lake, but again it is probably better done in March. I also took the bike farther into the area past another chain fence that you will see in the parking lot. Years ago I had success in this area, but now even the road is overgrown as shown by the below pictures.

 

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This was a road-below.

 

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I continued down it for a while until I came across this sign and turned back.

 

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Again, there are fossils to be found here, but in the Summertime it is really difficult.

 

Can you see the concretion in the below picture? I can't either, they are there, just got to wait a few months.

 

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After exiting the Monster Lake parking lot, I turned Right and continued down 5000N a short distance to another parking lot that is on your right, I believe it is called Eagle Lake. Now to be honest with you, I have never collected here, but I was happy to have my bike in the hilly terrain. One note, there is a parking lot right when you enter (Yellow arrow), but I suggest continue farther into this area on the road that you will see after entering the lot. This road will take you to a place where there is a boat ramp parking area (Red arrow). 

 

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The Red arrow is a Ponderosa Lake.

 

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When you gate to the Boat ramp parking, proceed down the road where you will have to cross another chain fence, again these chains are just to stop you from driving down this road. As you continue down this road, you will see it is more of a path that goes up and down.

 

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In case i confused anyone, here is an aerial shot of where you cross the chain.

 

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I took this path for quite a distance, but did not see where it ended. This is a place, like the Tipple that has some barren places right off of the road where you can find concretions, like I did.

 

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This is still the path-

 

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I will continue with a couple more pictures from this area on my Final Post Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here are some more pictures from the Ponderosa Area, this is an area I suggest people check out.

 

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The Blue dot on the picture below shows the distance that I went on this path, but it appears to continue for a long way around the lake. If you take a mountain bike on this trail, be careful of the hilly descents, they are fast and there are rocks on the path, that coupled with wet and muddy brakes makes for an interesting ride.

 

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This aerial picture shows what should be the path.

 

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Make sure to check the path that you will be walking on, concretions are found there also.

 

I hope that you like this post and if you have never collected at Pit 11, I hope you find it is somewhat useful.

 

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I bet a lot of people will find this topic informative - Can non-members see it too, and there'll be an uptick in the numbers of people going there and concretion depletion? :zzzzscratchchin:

Anyway, interesting to see what you're dealing with nowadays vs. before. I suppose those of us who have a few specimens should be happy with what we've got!

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On 6/17/2019 at 12:04 AM, Wrangellian said:

Can non-members see it too, and there'll be an uptick in the numbers of people going there and concretion depletion?

I believe that they can- and concretion depletion is not something that I worry about. It has been that way for years and if you want concretions, you really have to work for them. Unlike other places that people collect fossils, there is not guarantee that anything is going to be found in a particular area, it is the luck of the draw. 

 

I really wish that the State would go in and bulldoze the Tipple Area to turn it over. As it stands now, not much will come out of there and it is getting harder each year.

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Loved the picture tour. It gives me a chance to see something I’ve heard about but will probably never get to see in person. I do have a few modules from there that I’ve purchased over the years and now I’ve had a chance to see where they’ve come from. Very informative!

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1 hour ago, Randyw said:

Loved the picture tour. It gives me a chance to see something I’ve heard about but will probably never get to see in person. I do have a few modules from there that I’ve purchased over the years and now I’ve had a chance to see where they’ve come from. Very informative!

Thanks Randy

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Ralph, 

Thanks for this view into an area that, while well known for fossils, is a bit of a mystery beyond that. 

I appreciate your skillful, and always interesting reporting.

Thanks for dispelling some of the mystery behind the Mazon Creek nodules. :) 
 

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Nice report....wow things have changed....looks like eventually it will be an event to find a fossil there. Kinda a bummer but that’s how these things usually work out 

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I have always been confused during my two almost unsuccessful trips to the area. This helps tremendously. Two questions for you. I do have a small fishing boat or a canoe. Is the hunting just as good on turino hill in the summer as opposed to a spring trip to the other areas? Then my second question, what about late September? Probably too many leaves on the ground?

 

Thanks

Mike

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36 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

Two questions for you. I do have a small fishing boat or a canoe. Is the hunting just as good on turino hill in the summer as opposed to a spring trip to the other areas? Then my second question, what about late September? Probably too many leaves on the ground?

Mike, Turino Hill looks to be the same at all times of the year, the only exception would be the shoreline around the island, that would be better in March. Also as far as boats go, I am pretty sure that it needs to be motorized, but I could be wrong. A friend of mine recently went to the islands to collect, I don’t think he hit Turino and he stated that he is not going back because they are too overgrown. If it was me, I would still be hitting them, but probably in March rather then any other time of the year. And as far as September, last year the leaves did not start falling around here until late October.

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Outstanding and extremely informative report, Ralph.  Thanks for taking the time and effort.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Very nice and elaborate report. thx for taking us along :D

 

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growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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Wow, thanks, Ralph, this is a fascinating post! I love seeing the pictures from years ago since I only starting going to these places last year. It IS very hard work getting to some of these places even in March, I can't imagine it's for everyone. You really have to be ready to go to work.

 

On your picture with the red and yellow arrows of Ponderosa Lake, I was very interested to see that you go down to the red arrow and around the lake clockwise. I've always cut west on the trail that's located about halfway between the 2 arrows (it's marked by a chain link across it) so that in effect I would follow the same path only counter-clockwise. Have you ever gone that way? Do you think you can find concretions anywhere around the whole lake?

 

I also have heard you have to have a boat with a motor to go on the cooling lake. I don't have one but would love to get out to Turino Hill some day. Maybe there are charters you can rent?

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Biking and fossil hunting is one of my favorite hobby mixes. Very nice report and bike!

9CA25B27-F6BD-4B6A-B54F-47B1A892F463.jpeg

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Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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2 hours ago, JohnJ said:

Outstanding and extremely informative report, Ralph.  Thanks for taking the time and effort.

Thanks John, it almost took me as long to do the post as it did to take the pictures- lol.

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1 hour ago, bigred97 said:

Have you ever gone that way? Do you think you can find concretions anywhere around the whole lake?

 

I also have heard you have to have a boat with a motor to go on the cooling lake. I don't have one but would love to get out to Turino Hill some day. Maybe there are charters you can rent?

This was the first time that I have been on that path, but I would like to see how far it goes.

 

I would say yes to concretions being found anywhere around the lake since the whole area is overburden that contained concretions.

 

I believe that a motor is needed on the lake since it can get very rough from time to time and there are no charters that take you to the islands.

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1 hour ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

Biking and fossil hunting is one of my favorite hobby mixes. Very nice report and bike!

I use to have my backpack filled with concretions as well as two other packs that I would hang on the handle bars- made for an interesting ride.

 

It looks like a great place where you go.

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Thanks for the effort to photograph the various parts of the collecting area and posting a most excellent report here. This should make the area a little less "scary" for people heading there for the first time. It won't make things any easier as far as moving along the terrain goes, but it does show what and where to look for it. There is 160 square kilometers of land area that was mined so there's hundreds of millions of concretions still to be found. The problem is getting to them. Ground cover is very thick and particularly "nasty", but the best finds are in the thickest parts of that cover. You will leave bruised and abused and grinning from ear to ear.

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Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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28 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Thanks for the effort to photograph the various parts of the collecting area and posting a most excellent report here. This should make the area a little less "scary" for people heading there for the first time. It won't make things any easier as far as moving along the terrain goes, but it does show what and where to look for it. There is 160 square kilometers of land area that was mined so there's hundreds of millions of concretions still to be found. The problem is getting to them. Ground cover is very thick and particularly "nasty", but the best finds are in the thickest parts of that cover. You will leave bruised and abused and grinning from ear to ear.

Thanks and I agree Mark with your last sentence.

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