This is Mazon Monday post #130. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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ESCONI has been visiting the Braceville spoil pile each year in the spring and fall for many years, but the pile has been there even longer - 130 years in total. It started existence as the spoil pile for Fred Schultz in 1877. He sank the shaft and sold the mine to the Braceville Coal Company, which called it the No. 2 mine. It was in operation from around 1877 to 1894. The Braceville Coal Company had six mines all in the vicinity of Braceville, IL. No 2 was the most productive of the six mines with 2,301,088 tons of coal extracted. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Rallroad operated the mine from 1883-1891.
- No. 1 Mine 1874 - 1879
- No. 2 Mine 1881 - 1883 and 1891 - 1892
- No. 3 Mine 1881 - 1891
- No. 4 Mine 1892 - 1900
- No. 5 Mine 1900 - 1907
- No. 6 Mine 1903 - 1910
The spoil pile was huge, as can be seen by this photo from around 1928. The cows shown here belonged to the Adam Cullick. The Cullicks were sextons of the Braceville - Gardner cemetery, which is across the road from the spoil pile on Division St. This photo comes from Suzanne Mora (and her brother) via Andrew Young. Andrew volunteers at the Chicago Academy of Sciences with Suzanne. Suzanne joined ESCONI at Braceville a few years ago. Her family owned the property across the road from the spoil pile.
In 1961, the Tryners of Braidwood owned the farm that included the spoil pile. Their cow Susie can be seen on top of the hill in this UPI photo from 1961. We are looking for the actual photo shown here. It comes from Michele Micetich curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum.
HXPO82206-8/22/61-BRAIDWOOD, ILL:-SUSIE HAS HER OWN PRIVATE SUMMIT -- A private "Shangri La escape area for Susie, a Jersy cow owed by Mrs. Mary Tryner of Braidwood, is on this high mound of mine diggings on the Tryner farm. For the past 5 years Susie has sauntered up the hill each morning, coming down at dusk, Here she escapes the heat & flies. Many passersby have stopped to ask the Tryners about the "cow Statue only to be told Susie is the "real thing." and the owners say, "when she's not on the hill, she's in our corn, so we rest easier when we see her up there. UPI TELEPHOTO Str,/psh
Many collectors visited the hill though the years. It is known for worm fossils and as such was nicknamed "Worm Hill". Ralph Jewell is one of those collectors. He snapped this photo in the early 1990's. The hill is still pretty large in his photo, but has definitely shrunk some since the 1960's. That's his car parked next to it.
Back in the early-2000s, people were still parking off to the side of the hill as can be seen from these photos from the fall of 2000 and the fall of 2001. Now, we park on Berta Road and walk down the dirt (usually mud) and gravel road.
Here are a couple side views from 2001. These photos were taken by John Good.
My son, Tyler, used to climb to the top each year. My first record of it is in 2009 when he was 6 and another from the spring of 2014 when he was 11. You can see him waving from the top. I'd have to tell Ty to hurry up and get it out of his system. I'm sure John Good wasn't too happy!
These photos are from 2010. The shape is pretty symmetrical and the top is flat. At one time in the early 2000's, there was a tree at the top.
This one is from 2011. The material on the right side is still there.
Fall of 2014... not much change.
2016 brought a big change. The right side is gone. Supposedly, it was used as fill for some roads near Morris.
Fall of 2020... looking eroded!
Over the years, we've had a lot of fun on the hill. Here is a selfie with Keith showing some leg!
Braceville is famous for the Fossil Pour on field trips. The first is from 2017, the second from 2019, and the third from 2022. Many members have contributed to this fossil bonanza with the largest contributors being Ralph Jewell, Andrew Young, Keith Robitschek, and Rich Holm.
Here's a video of a walk to the pile taken in September 2018.
If you have any other photos of the hill, please send them along! We'd all love to see how it changed during the 1970's and 1980's.