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This is the "Fossil Friday" post #234. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Today's fossil is a sweet little Neuropteris ovata from the famous lower beds of the Mazon River. N. ovata was a seed fern, which was a group of seed bearing plants that look very similar to true ferns. They were most common during the Carboniferous when they made up part of the understory of the rain forests. After arising during the Devonian, this group declined during Mesozoic Era and finally going mostly extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. For more, see Mazon Monday #85.
This beautiful fossil was collected by Becky Monroe a few years ago at one of the Canal Corridor charity benefits held at the Kodat farm. Thanks for sharing, Becky!
This is Throwback Thursday #235. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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Have you heard of the Fluorspar Festival? It's held in Rosiclare, IL on the first weekend of October every year... 2024 was the Diamond Celebration! That's 60 years! The Fluorspar Festival celebrates the history of fluorite mining in Hardin County, IL. There's even the American Fluorite Museum in Rosiclare, IL.
ROSICLARE BUS TRIP
We have the desired permission to enter Crystal Fluorspar Mine at Cave-in-Rock, Illinois on April 26th.
We also have 17 people signed up for the trip. We need 19 more to make that trip possible.
We plan to leave 7:30 P.M. on Friday, April 25th, stop at Harrisburg Hotel in the wee small hours.
Not later than 10:00 A.M. enter mine because they close Saturday P.M. We will ride to operations in a jeep. Each one must sign liability waiver, furnish their own galoshes, hard hat, and some kind of electric light. $10.00 for bus fare round trip.
We are taking March vacation, will visit these people on our way home so after April 1, we can give you more information. Please mail name, address and telephone number if you wish to go to
John G. Schnizlein
5905 Woodward Avenue
Downers Grove, Illinois
A report followed in the May 1958 edition. There were ulimately 28 - 30 attendees.
THANK YOU - JACK AND DOROTHY
At the bewitching hour of midnight Friday April 25th, 30 not-too- sleepy folks boarded the bus in Downers for a better than anticipated trip to Cave-in-Rock and Rosiclare, Dorothy and Jack had dry run the route and knew just where we were bound. Cat naps were enjoyed by most of us, and there was singing too 'cause Dr. Hoff brought along his guitar. We saw Venus rise that early Saturday morning, but at sunup the rain came, but you helped us laugh that off.
While a tire was being changed on the bus at Olney, we had breakfast- then on our way again. By now it was really raining but that seems never to stop a rockhound donning our helmets, boots, and raincoats and carrying flash lights, bags and hammers, we were on our way to the mine. It was a walk-in entrance, really quite interesting, we walked and walked a descent of 250 feet someone said here we came upon fine specimen of fluorspar - we left ladened. Some of us who didn't hurry too fast to shelter in the office to enjoy brought-along sandwiches and cokes we took from the office refrigerator (nickels were deposited in a box inside) and cookies served by Ethel Malott and date bars Mildred Babbitt had baked, saw the flotation plant.
Back in the bus, we drove to Cave-in-Rock where we enjoyed an early dinner of catfish and corn sticks. So many folks in town at one time was an event in this small town, but the restaurant folk took good care of us, for Jack had made advance reservations. While here we also visited the cave at Cave-in-Rock State Park, we were glad we'd taken time to see this.
After dinner we ferried across the Ohio to the home of the Clements in Marion, Ky. It was raining here too, but we didn't let it bother us we just were amazed at the wonderful collection which is large. Incidently the collection is so large that much of it is right out in the yard in the weather. Mr. and Mrs. Clement were gracious hosts to our group. Many purchases were made, and we were glad for an oppor- tunity to get such fine specimen at the good prices Mr. Clement offered he gave ESCONI 10% wasn't that nice? We thought so. Thank you, Mr. Clement!
Again, we ferried across the Ohio and now to Elizabethtown to the picturesque Rose Hotel overlooking the Ohio (our group had the entire hotel here again Jack and Dorothy made arrangements for us). Our hostess here Mrs. Gullatte, 85 years young, she of the fifth generation of owners of this fine old hostelry since 1812, and Frankie (born right here just years ago) who was more the confidante than servant, possibly a generation removed from slavery.
Sunday morning everyone was up sorta early for in this old hotel there wasn't a bath to a room, or for even two or three rooms but faces were washed and teeth brushed and seems everyone was at Edna's restaurant 'bout the same time good food even juke box music and here Donnafred surprised some of us with another of her accomplishments.
It's time for us to be on our way now for we are going to the stock piles of the Aluminum Company of america to find flu fluospar with galena and sphalerite in one cluster. Fermission to enter these premises was obtained thru our own Carl Hoffman.
Frankie and her husband, he the sort of helper when we drove away pictures were taken of them waved us good-bye - hope you see them.
Our driver says, he can tell there's more weight in the bus, did we collect?
There was a birthday party too Ethel Malott saw to it that we all had a piece of the fine birthday cake for Olive Knight and Hazen Bonow when we stopped for lunch in Carmi there was much fun when they opened gift packages and read their birthday cards.
Homeward bound now Wilbur Hoff's guitar accompaniment for our sing- ing was grand, as was Olive's song with gestures. And right here would move that we do away with the old fashioned auction 'cause we discovered in Helen Rapsul a most vivacious auctioneer. Yes, it rained all the way home but there was so much hilarity inside the bus weather was forgotten some said they'd not laughed and had so much fun since goodness knows when.
Arriving back in Downers and unloading was really something every- one helping get the "stuff" off the bus then transferred to cars good byes and "let's do this again sometime" seemed to be the thought when we parted and headed for our homes with our luggage, purchases at Clements, our "finds" and some of us even found specimen or (?) we'd not put in our bags. Now just who would do a thing like that???? It was fun worth the expense a bit more than anticipated 'cause we didn't quite have the bus quota but, we think we might like another such trip to some other interesting place.
Thanks again Jack and Dorothy.
-Margie-
We have some photos of the trip.
The Ohio River.
Clements home? Or is it the Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown, KY?
These last photos are from Cave-In-Rock, a state park in Illinois.
The ESCONI October 2024 General Meeting will be held on October 11th, 2024 at 8:00 via Zoom. The topic of the meeting is "Hoyo Negro: A Spectacular Natural Trap on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula". It will be presented by Jim Chatters, who has studied human history here in the Americas for many years. Here is an article about the discovery of a 13,000 year old human found in Hoyo Negro.
Hoyo Negra is a submerged late Pleistocene cave site in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
The cenotes and underwater cave systems of the Yucatan Peninsula are emerging as one of the most promising frontiers for Paleoamerican studies. Following the end of the last glacial maximum, rising sea levels flooded the region’s maze of underground passageways and preserved a diverse Late Pleistocene fossil assemblage. A female human skeleton, named "Naia," found in spatial association with the remains of now-extinct fauna in the submerged subterranean pit of Hoyo Negro presents a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary Paleoamerican and paleoenvironmental research in Quintana Roo, Mexico. At 13,000-12,000 years BP, the young woman’s skeleton represents the oldest nearly complete individual yet found in the Americas.
ESCONI will be holding the 2024 Mazon Creek Fossil Day on October 12th, 2024 from 10 AM to 3 PM at the Coal City Public Library. Please come out and bring your Mazon Creek fossils. There will displays of Mazon Creek fossils and knowledgeable people who can identify your fossils.
Coal City Public Library
85 N. Garfield St.
Coal City, IL
Main Meeting RoomLecture on Mazon Creek Fossils 1 PM
Come on out for another great and informative day!
This is Mazon Monday post #237. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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Fortunately, the threat of bad weather never materialized and we enjoyed a very nice day collecting fossils from a spoil pile just outside Danville, IL on September 28th, 2024. This was our second trip to the spoil pile in 2024. We've been visiting it twice a year since 2021. By the shape of the hill, it's seen quite a bit of work since spring. That exposed quite a few concretions. Even though they are fairly ufgly, the concretions from this site can contain fossils. There wasn't as much reddog shale available as previous trips, but what was exposed did produce some interesting fossils.
It was windy aand cooler than some of the previous trips, which made it more comfortable. Here we are waiting to hit the pile.... Hello, Lil!
A view from the top.
Andrew Young fighting the wind at the top of the pile.
Some very nice fossils in the reddog shale.
This looks like a nice place to rest..
An interesting bivalve found by Katie Mitsui.
Jake, what a haul. He found some very nice shapes!
And, the required end of day selfie.
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The lagoon-like entrance of an unnamed cenote stretches out near the Caribbean Sea. Martin Broen
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the underwater caves of Mexico. They call them cenotes and these particular caves are located in the Yucatán Peninsula. They date to a few million years ago and preserved remnants of the Mayan culture and sometime fossils of extinct animals.
The underwater caves of the Yucatán Peninsula are a window to the distant past. Through two million years and over multiple glaciation cycles, these caves have been transformed. When the sea level was high, the caves flooded, and their reach expanded.
During the ice ages, the caves dried out as the sea level dropped, and the seeping water from the surface decorated the caverns with deposits such as stalagmites and stalactites, collectively known as speleothems. Then, with the next cycle came higher sea levels again, flooding the caves and preserving in time the speleothems and everything else with them.
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #233. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Diplazites unita is one of the most common ferns found in the Mazon Creek deposit. D. unita has had a bit of a tortured past with quite a few different names over the years. It was originally named Pecopteris unita by Adolphe-Theodore Brongniart (1801-1876) in 1836. Brongniart is considered by many to be the father of paleobotany. For more information, see Mazon Monday #53.
This specimen was found in the Pit 3 locality in the summer of 2022.
This is Throwback Thursday #234. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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25 Years Ago - October 1999
50 Years Ago - October 1974
70 Years Ago - October 1954
Just a reminder of our new Mineralogy Study Group's first meeting later this week! Please join us for a great presentation about geodes! All are welcome - bring family and friends! They do not have to be ESCONI members to attend meetings.
EXPO 2024
October 18-20, 2024
Hours: 9am-5pm Fri, 8am-5pm Sat, 8am-3pm Sun
The Orr Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, IL.
The keynote topic for EXPO 2024 is The Carboniferous Period.
Keynote Speaker: Joe Devera - "Late Mississippian Vertebrate Fossils from the Buncimbe Red Bed, Southern Illinois"
