#Mazon Creek Fossil Bed
2 messages in this thread
Does anyone know if the fossil beds (well, really the tailings piles from the
old coal pits) down in the Mazon Creek, Illinois area are still open for
collecting? If so, a phone number, contact address, etc. etc. would be
appreciated. I've not been down there for (gasp!) nearly 25 years and I'd like
to take my kids there this summer.
Thanks…GCB
Dear Gary,
There's a thread running in the Dinosaur Forum from a David Corner 71033,2050
who seems knowledgable about Mazon Creek fossils. I also recall a Lapidary
Journal from Jan or Feb '95 with an article about a certain Tom Cesario of
Sugar Grove, Illinois, who's supposed to be somewhat of a local authority on
the formation and choice hunting areas around the old strip mining tailings and
cooling pond for the nuclear plant in that area. The owner of Dave's Down to
Earth Rock Shop in Evanston is also someone very familiar with the area.
I've a few Mazon Creek specimens, including a very decent Tullimonstrum
gregarium, whatever kind of phylum it belongs to. Wierd stuff!
Good luck and good hunting…
Incidentally, my 8 year old daughter's the one with the sharpest eyes on the
ground, always finding coins and ear-rings, even a diamond stud once. She
spots the wierdest fossils virtually every other time we go on a hike. She
recently found a three inch conch replaced by translucent aragonite! It all
started when she was two or so when we caught her gathering discarded pecan
shells on a hike to Vernal fall at Yosemite!
Joseph in Honolulu