This is Mazon Monday post #203. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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Andy Hay was a long time ESCONI member. He joined in 1976 and was a member to the very end. For many years, he wrote the Creature Corner column for the ESCONI newsletter. Many of those articles were compiled into the Creature Corner book, published in 2001. Unfortunately, his April 1994 "Fossil Jackpot" was not one of those articles. In that article, Andy speaks about the number of concretions that have been collected and processed. He also touches on how likely you are to find a fossil in those concretions (see Mazon Monday #126). The story of his driveway adds charm. Who among us hasn't had the problem of getting rid of our spoils? Who dumps them in the own driveway? How about under some bushes? A rock garden?
Andy Hay and Don Auler. Andy did the writing and Don made the drawings. Unfortunately, Andy Hay passed away in 2003 and Don Auler in 2002. They are sorely missed. And, many happy memories of them are still passed around.
CREATURE CORNER
A survey was taken recently in an effort to determine the number of Mazon Creek ironstone concretions collected over the years. Questioning collectors as to the number of "buckets" (5 gallon pails) of concretions they brought home, then determining the average number in a pail, times number of days collecting, times years of collecting, times number? of collectors: a figure approaching one million was arrived at. We have become so jaded by hearing of the millions (of dollars) Congress throws around, that the quantity "million" means little, if anything, to us. Well, let me tell you, a million concretions izza lottsa rox.
OK! Where are all the fossils the concretions are supposed to have preserved within them?
As all concretion collectors ruefully learn, each concretion does not contain a fossil; when it does, the fossil is most often not well preserved. Well preserved fossils are relatively rare. The finding of the truly uncommon, the "different" species, is an event. One must bring home great quantities of ironstone nodules in order to acquire a decent Mazon Creek collection. Meanwhile you have to dispose of the duds.
For years the author dumped the duds on his gravel driveway. Each winter's heaving and thawing saw the gravel and concretions vanish into the mud. Over the years the neighborhood gentrified; a cement driveway became a necessity. During the cement contractor's attempt to level the surface with a bulldozer, a stream of obscene expletives arose from the bulldozer operator. It seemed that the siderite concretions, crushed and buried by years of weathering and traffic, had rusted together into a cohesive mass. The contractor may have been upset, but the driveway had developed a solid base! The author has digressed from the main theme in order to stress to the reader the quantity of concretions that needs be collected.
This was a point the author was called upon to stress in a meeting with environmentalists. How to dispel the erroneous assumption that to allow each collector a handful of concretions would be a guarantee of a handful of fossils? How?
The analogy of the slot machine, the one-armed bandit, came to mind. The machine is honest; it pays out. But when? It takes tens of thousands of pulls (concretions) to get the $1000.00 jackpot (that well preserved fossil), and yet because the machine is set up to "kick out" randomly it is also possible to pay out another jackpot at the next pull.
Good Hunting!
Andrew A. Hay
It's been 30 years since this estimate of a million concretions. If anything, that number is way too low. We've all collectively pulled out quite a few during the years since.
March 1st brings a new season at Pit 11... Happy Hunting!
