Mazonia North / Pit 14

[Patrick K.]

Hi all! 
 

 Can anyone point to any info on mazonia north unit hunting? I believe it’s pit 14 from some maps I found on the Google machine, but not certain. I took a kayak trip on Clear Lake on the south side of the north unit and did a bit of fishing and some hunting - it’s mostly overgrown with a thick grass but I did find a section where the bank had given way and it had some odd concretions - nothing like pit 11. I took half a bucket home just cause I was there and figured why not - doubt they are anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated - any books that have the history of the mines and what’s been found at each pit? 
 

Thanks!

Patrick 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Those may have some fossils, but they are not the "Mazon Creek nodules" that make the area famous. I've hunted that area and found it to be nearly devoid of concretions. I only tried the area 3 or 4 times and didn't cover every inch of it, but I did scout a large enough "sample" to consider it a waste of time. The only area worth your time there is the acreage they turn over with a bulldozer right by the ranger station, and that gets picked over in the blink of an eye.

 

I'm assuming the area you refer to is the lower left of this map where it says "MAZONIA ACCESS":

The area east and southeast of that is pit 11, as is the cooling lake itself.

[Patrick K.]

Thanks for the info Mark. Yeah that’s the area I was in - clear lake is the southern most lake in that picture, just above that 5000 N road, and the west end is close to the Mazon River. You can actually get off a kayak onto the shore there, the shoreline reeds are not thick as concrete like they are at Pondo and monster and eagle lake in the south unit. It was disappointing that there is nothing there but I’m glad I got out and explored it regardless.

[connorp]

Pit 14 produced fossils in black shale back in the day. Haven’t heard of anything else from that area.

[Mark Kmiecik]

15 hours ago, Patrick K. said:

Thanks for the info Mark. Yeah that’s the area I was in - clear lake is the southern most lake in that picture, just above that 5000 N road, and the west end is close to the Mazon River. You can actually get off a kayak onto the shore there, the shoreline reeds are not thick as concrete like they are at Pondo and monster and eagle lake in the south unit. It was disappointing that there is nothing there but I’m glad I got out and explored it regardless.

 

The fishing there is superb, especially for large crappies. Tough to find because they're usually suspended, but once you get on them you can stay on them for hours. The schools are huge.

[Patrick K.]

On 4/2/2023 at 11:11 AM, Mark Kmiecik said:

 

The fishing there is superb, especially for large crappies. Tough to find because they're usually suspended, but once you get on them you can stay on them for hours. The schools are huge.

I haven’t fished much there in the summer besides ice fishing, but the hardwater fishing there, it’s just fantastic. 
 

 I messed up my map reading - I believe this was the old pit 16, not 14. I did find this is one of those globs of rock - it’s practically cemented in this matrix. Anyone have any recommendations for trying to extract this at all? 
 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

I don't recognize the fossil. What is it? If it's common stuff I wouldn't try extracting it, and if it's something extremely rare I'd have a pro do it.