Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

ESCONI Field Trip Report - Belvidere Quarry July 26, 2020, #fossils #Ordovician

By all reports, it was a hot, hot day at the quarry on Sunday.  Everyone was masked up and ready to go!  This document has information on the geology around Belvidere.  The original can be found here.

Here are some pictures if you didn't brave the heat.

ESCONI Field Trip to to Belvidere Quarry - Sunday, July 26, 2020 #FieldTrip #Ordovician

There will be a field trip to a quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, July 26, 2020, from 9AM to 12 noon.

 

The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a "hard-rock" quarry (dolomite). If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! The quarry has been active so there is new rock exposed.

 

Note that if Boone County reverts back to phase 3 before the date of the field trip, then the trip will be cancelled.

 
Rules
 
1. Everyone in your group MUST be an ESCONI member as of July 23, 2020.
 
2. Everyone in your group MUST be at least 18 years of age.

3. Everyone MUST have and wear a hard hat, safety vest, and sturdy boots while in the quarry. No sandals, tennis shoes, and the like. No claw hammers or roofing hammers - use only rock hammers. If you plan on hammering then bring eye protection and wear it.

4. Everyone MUST have a face mask. This is a quarry and social distancing should not be a problem, but if you are within 6 feet of anyone, wear the mask. You will not get in if you do not have a mask. You must make the decision for yourself if being with a group of people in a quarry is the right place for you to be right now. If you are sick, do not attend.
 
5. Sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending and their names. My email is fossil54@att.net   No phone calls please. Do not call the quarry.
 
6. I will acknowledge by return email. If you don't get a reply in 24 hours, send it again!
 
7. Maximum attendance by ESCONI members is 30.

8. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to check-in at the quarry. By doing so you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the ESCONI waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to. There may be an additional waiver from the quarry.

   
    The address of the quarry is 4525 Irene Road, Belvidere, Illinois.

    I will distribute the waiver forms by email to those signed up just before the trip.
 
    Questions? Send me an email...
  

ESCONI Field Trip to Vulcan DeKalb Quarry - Canceled! #fieldtrip

The field trip to Vulcan DeKalb on April 4, 2020 has been canceled.  Stay safe and health!

 

 

ESCONI Field Trip to Vulcan DeKalb Quarry - Saturday, April 4th, 2020 #fieldtrip

There will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Vulcan DeKalb (aka Larson) Quarry on Saturday April 4, 2020 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. The quarry is located at 15622 Barber Green Road. This trip is combined with a visit from Dr. Roy Plotnick’s class from UIC, and Dr. Reed Scherer’s class from NIU. The rules are shown below:

Everyone in your party MUST be an ESCONI member as of 11:59 PM April 1st and at least 18 years old to attend this trip.

1. Because this is a combined trip, there are only 10 open slots for ESCONI members.

2. The parking lot is on the south side of the road, but it isn't big. Follow any directions given by quarry management on parking.

3. We will have site-specific training, and everyone will sign a waiver.  Waiver forms will be distributed by email a few days before the trip. You DO need to print out and sign the Vulcan waiver, and bring it along. You DO NOT need to print out the ESCONI Accident and Liability form. Your signature on the sign-in sheet affirms that you have read the ESCONI Accident and Liability form and agree to the conditions in it.

4. We will be collecting in a designated area on the overburden shale dump only.  We cannot go anywhere else in the quarry.

5. You must have the following safety gear: steel-toed boots, hard hat, safety glasses and safety vest.  These must be worn at all times on the property.

6. No rock hammers, chisels, or large shovels.  We can keep the fossils we find as long as they can easily be carried. A wagon can be helpful.

7. Photographs of the quarry or quarry facilities are not allowed.  Photographs of fossils ARE allowed, and Vulcan management would like to have pictures of nice specimens.

8. Please review the ESCONI Code of Ethics available on the ESCONI website.  This applies to field trips.

If you have unique or impressive specimens found at this quarry, and are willing to bring them for the group(s) to see, please do so.

To sign up for this field trip, please send Dave Carlson an email with the number of members attending. The email address is: fossil54@att.net  No phone calls please. You will receive a confirmation via return email within 24 hours. If you do not hear back within that time, send it again!

ESCONI Field Trip to Field Museum Meteorite and Fossil Invertebrate Collections - Saturday, February 22nd, 2020

ESCONI Field Trip to Field Museum Meteorite and Fossil Invertebrate Collections

There will be a field trip to the Field Museum in Chicago on Saturday February 22, 2020 starting at 10 AM. This is a behind-the-scenes visit to view the collections of meteorites and fossil invertebrates. Here are the rules:

1. This trip is free (no entry fee) but you and everyone in your group must be ESCONI members.  Have your membership status worked out before the trip. No money or dues will be accepted on the day of the trip.

2. Meet at the west door to the museum (between the museum and Lake Shore Drive) at 10 AM.

3. Families and kids are welcome.

4. Maximum attendance is 30. The group will be split. One part will start viewing meteorites, while the other goes through fossil invertebrates, then they will switch. Total time for both areas is about 1 hour.

5. Registration is required by February 20, 2020. To register, send me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending. My email address is fossil54@att.net

Thanks to Irene Broede for arranging this trip, and to Jim Holstein and Paul Mayer for hosting it.

 

ESCONI Field Trip to the Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum at Benedictine University October 26th, 2019

There will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum at Benedictine University at 10 AM on October 26, 2019. The museum is located in the Birck Hall of Science at Benedictine University in Lisle, IL.

1. We are limited to a group of 20.
2. No age limit – families are welcome.
3. There is no cost for the trip.
4. We will have a guided tour of the museum with emphasis on geology, paleontology and archeology. They will also bring specimens that are not currently on display out for us to view.
5. Everyone in your group must be a member of ESCONI. No dues will be accepted on the trip, so have your membership status resolved before then.
6. Registration is required. Sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with your name and the number of members attending. No phone calls please. My email is fossil54@att.net

A map of the Benedictine campus can be found at http://www.ben.edu/map.cfm.  I will find out where we can park.

 

ESCONI Field Trip Report - Braceville Fall 2019, #fossils #MazonCreek

The Fall 2019 trip to Braceville was on September 14th and 15th this year.  The weather was great on Saturday, maybe a little hot for digging.   On Sunday, the day started out wet, with a steady down pour in early morning, but a few hardy souls went in right from the beginning!  It was two good days of fossil collecting, renewing old friendships, and making some new friends.  It may take a little while with the freeze/thaw preparation, but hopefully, we'll all come away with some awesome new fossils for our collections!

With all the rain we have had this year, the path got pretty overgrown this year.

There were some wet areas and they really turned to mud on Sunday.  Here is a little video summary of the trip.

A lunch time selfie...

We did the customary dump of fossils on both Saturday and Sunday.

 

There was a special visitor on Saturday...  A caterpillar from an Imperial Moth was found.

Here are various pictures from the 2 days of fossil fun!

ESCONI Field Trip To St. Paul Quarry, in St. Paul, IN - October 25th, 2019

There will be a field trip to St. Paul Quarry (Silurian; Waldron Shale) on Friday, October 25th, 2019.  Please note: the date is subject to the Quarry's work schedule and may be moved or canceled.  You must be a member of ESCONI on or before Friday, October 11th, 2019 to attend.

1. The trip is from 9:00 am to around 3:00 pm Eastern time.
2. We need to meet at the Office at 8:45 Eastern time to sign release forms.
3. Hard hats are required as are sturdy shoes/boots. NO street shoes, sandals, or sneakers. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website.
4. Safety vest is encouraged as are safety glasses.
5. The minimum age to attend this trip is 18 years old.
6. You must be a paid member on or before October 11, the ESCONI General meeting.
7. We are limited to 20 participants.
8. Sign up with John Catalani at Fossilnautiloid@aol.com.
9. Since it has happened in the past that the quarry has cancelled the field trip, e-mails are required in case participants need to be contacted. 

The quarry address is: 519 S. County Line Rd, St. Paul, IN 47272 (map).  Their website is: https://newpointstone.com/st-paul/.

 

Please email John Catalani at fossilnautiloid@aol.com to sign up for the trip.  No phone calls.

ESCONI Field Trip to Rockford-Area Gravel Pit - Oct 12th, 2019

There will be a field trip to a gravel pit in the Rockford area on Oct 12th, 2019. This is the same location that has been visited before. Because this is a shared trip with the Rockford club (RRVGMS) there is space for 20 ESCONI members. The trip will be from 9 AM to 12 noon.   

1. You and everyone in your group must be a member of ESCONI by Oct 10th.  Have your membership status resolved by then.
2. The minimum age to attend this trip is 18 years old.
3. Hard hats are required! 
4. You will be required to sign a waiver from the quarry.
5. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to sign-in at the quarry. By signing you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to.
6. ESCONI members can sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending and their names. My email is fossil54@att.net   No phone calls please. Do not call the quarry.
7. I will acknowledge by return email. If you don't get a reply in 24 hours, send it again!
8. The address is 6230 Beltline Rd. Rockford, IL 61109

Note: this is a sand and gravel quarry, not the usual hard rock quarry in Rockford.  There are fossils, but they come from the glacial till.  So, if you are in the mood for a general rock collecting trip, this is for you!

ESCONI Field Report: Starved Rock Clay Pit, Saturday August 17th, 2019

Trip Report: Starved Rock Clay Pit, August 17, 2019

By Dave Carlson

Email: fossil54@att.net

 

“You gotta go in the mud sometimes to figure who you are” – Andy Irons.

“Madness….madness.” – Major Clipton, “Bridge on the River Kwai”.

Who goes into a clay pit during a rain storm? Rock and fossil collectors, of course! Technically, we waited until the rain stopped to go in and collect. No vehicles got stuck because the road is good, but the same can’t be said for the people. More than one shoe is entombed in the Pennsylvanian mud, to be found by future generations.

This trip produced the expected pyrite balls in large numbers, pyritized wood and pyritized Stigmaria “bark”.

Pyrite ball approx. 1 inch diameter (above), and a cylinder of pyrite (below).

Pyritized wood (above), and Stigmaria “bark” (below).

The black (Mecca Quarry) shale was productive. It is quite hard at this location, but when left out in the weather tends to split along planes of weakness that sometimes hold fossils. Some of the finds are shown below.

Dunbarella, and an unidentified nautiloid (above), and Aviculopectin (below).

Acanthodian (“Spiny Sharks”) spines (above), and stomach ejecta (shark vomit) (below).

A group of 4 Listracanthus “spines” (above), and a Tyrannophontes theridion shrimp (below), which is about 1 inch in length.

There were a few other finds in the category of rocks and minerals. One was banded chert, which I’ve found in much greater quantity in previous visits. I also picked up a fist-sized rock from the road because it contained calcite crystals (an assumption) in a hard gray matrix. When exposed to 365 nM UV the gray matrix (not the crystals) fluoresces peach/pink. I have cleaned the rock thoroughly, and examined it with magnification, and I see no evidence of paint or other substances. It has no streak on a white streak plate.  It can be scratched by a nail, and it does not scratch glass. Please contact me if you have experience with fluorescent minerals and know what this might be.

Fluorescent specimen in normal light (above), and in 365 nM UV light (below).

The clay pit can be a challenging place to collect. With perseverance and an understanding of what is there, interesting specimens can be found, even on a day when it is raining. Major Clipton was wrong.

Thanks to all those who sent me pictures for this report:

Brian Borcherding
Andrew Ek
Rich Kerrill
Roger Klocek
Charles Nicchia
Connor Puritz
Ben Riegler
Ed Wagner

ESCONI Field Trip to an Ordovician, Hard-rock Quarry Near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, Sept 21, 2019

There will be a field trip to an Ordovician, hard-rock quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, Sept 21, 2019, from 9AM to 12 noon. We visited this quarry in April.

If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! The quarry has been active so there is new rock exposed.

Rules

1. Everyone in your group MUST be an ESCONI member as of Sept 18, 2019.
2. Everyone in your group MUST be at least 18 years of age.
3. Everyone MUST have and wear a hard hat, safety vest, and sturdy boots while in the quarry. No sandals, tennis shoes, and the like. No claw hammers or roofing hammers - use only rock hammers. If you plan on hammering then bring eye protection and wear it.
4. Sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending and their names. My email is fossil54@att.net   No phone calls please. Do not call the quarry.
5. I will acknowledge by return email. If you don't get a reply in 24 hours, send it again!
6. Maximum attendance by ESCONI members is 20. This is a combined trip with the Rockford club. I will keep a “Waiting List” if more spots open up.
7. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to sign-in at the quarry. By signing you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to.

The address of the quarry is 4525 Irene Road, Belvidere, Illinois. I will distribute the waiver forms by email to those signed up just before the trip.

Questions? Send me an email...

ESCONI Field Trip To Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Concretions - September 14th and 15th, 2019 #MazonCreek, fossils

Braceville Field Trip Rules

September 2019

The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for Sept 14 and 15, 2019 from 8 AM to 2 PM. You can attend either or both days. There is an attendance limit of 50 people each day.

1. Families are welcome, but the minimum age is 5 years old. Children must be supervised at all times by their parent or guardian. Registration ends at midnight Sept 11^th.
2. You and everyone in your party must be members of ESCONI. No membership dues will be accepted at the field trip site. Have your membership status resolved before the trip, no later than Sept 11th. You can pay dues by mailing a check, or with a credit card using the PayPal link on the ESCONI website.
3. You will be required to sign-in at the collecting site. By signing, you agree to follow the ESCONI Code of Ethics and Conduct (available on the ESCONI website) and agree to the conditions set forth in the ESCONI Accident Waiver and Release of Liability Form (sent by email to those that sign up). You don’t need to print it out, just know what you’re agreeing to.
4. You’re going to be digging in dirt and mud – dress accordingly! You may want to bring a shovel, pickaxe, trowel, or hammer. Use only a rock hammer, not a claw hammer or roofing hammer. If you decide to hammer on something, use eye protection. There may also be insects and poison ivy. Hard hats are not required. Bring a bucket to carry your fossils in. Gloves are strongly recommended. The collecting site is an old spoil pile on private property. There may be old rusty tools or other iron pieces embedded in the pile. Sliding down the hill could be very painful.
5. The top of the pile is unstable and not safe to stand on. Do not go above the flags/caution tape markers. Anyone found above the markers will be asked to leave and may not be allowed to sign up for future field trips.
6. Sign up for the trip by sending me (Dave) an email with your name, the number of members attending and the day(s) you are attending. I will acknowledge by return email within 24 hours. If you don’t hear from me in that time, send it again! My email is fossil54@att.net
7. If the trip is full I will keep a waiting list in case there are cancellations. If you are signed up and can’t make it, please let me know.

Meet at 8 AM at the entrance to the collecting site on S Berta Road, just east of the intersection with Division St (Braceville IL). A nearby landmark for driving directions is the Braceville Gardner Cemetery, 7295 East Braceville Road, Braceville, IL. I can send a small map to anyone that needs it.

 

ESCONI Field Trip to Starved Rock Clay Pit, Saturday August 17th, 2019

There will be a field trip to the Starved Rock Clay Pit on Saturday, August 17, 2019. This a combined trip with the Lincoln Orbit Earth Science Society (LOESS) of Springfield. There is room for 20 ESCONI members. The clay pit is located just south of Starved Rock State Park. I know the date conflicts with the Canal Corridor trip - sorry.

Other than the glacial overburden, everything at the clay pit is Pennsylvanian. From top down the layers are:

Mecca Quarry Shale - Black shale, hard.

Francis Creek Shale -  Mudstone from deltaic deposits.

Colchester No. 2 coal

Underclay - paleosol where the plants that made up the coal were rooted.

This location produces pyrite balls, pyritized wood, occasional vertebrate and invertebrate fossils in the black shake, and Mazon-like concretions. From my experience, the concretions do not split like typical Mazon concretions, but tend to degrade to flakes when subjected to freezing/thawing. The entry road is made with rock from the nearby Lone Star quarry (LaSalle Limestone and gray shale).

Rules:

1. Everyone in your party must be at least 18 years old and an ESCONI member by August 14, 2019.

 

2. Meet at the McDonald's in Oglesby by 8:30 AM. The address is 115 N. Lewis Avenue, Oglesby, IL. It is just east of I-39 on the east side of town. There will be a sign-in sheet there. We will then caravan to the clay pit. End time is a bit flexible - 1 PM at the earliest.

 

3. Bring and wear a hard hat and safety vest. Boots are strongly recommended as this location can be very muddy. If you plan to hammer on rocks then bring and wear eye protection. This is a big place, and a wagon or cart can be helpful.

 

4. This is not a hard-rock quarry, and the walls are not high, but exercise caution near any wall. If it looks unstable, don't go near it. Stay away from any equipment or cables.

 

5. The commercial product here is clay removed from pits in the quarry floor. These pits accumulate water. You must not go in the pits or the water.  The mud in and around the pits can suck you in and not let go!

 

6. If the entry road is in bad shape or there has been recent rain, vehicle access may be limited. We'll find out when we get there.

 

7. Please review the ESCONI Code of Ethics and Conduct on the website. It applies to field trips like this one. Those signed up will receive the ESCONI liability waiver by email before the trip. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRINT OUT AND SIGN THE WAIVER, just know what you are agreeing to by signing in.

Sign up by sending me (Dave) an email at fossil54@att.net giving the number of ESCONI members attending and their names. I will confirm by return email within 24 hours. If you don't hear from me in that time, send it again!

 

ESCONI Field Trip Photos: Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in Roscoe, IL July 13th, 2019

It was a beautiful day to collect fossils today.  The Fossil Forum user Praefectus posted a great field trip report for our field trip to an Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in the Fossil Hunting Trips forum.  Here are a few pictures to enjoy and visit the link to read more.

ESCONI Flashback Friday #6: Field Trip to Pit 11 September 1976

As part of the run up to ESCONI's 70th Anniversary.  Here is Flashback Friday post #6.  If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Thanks!

-----------------------------

Kathy Dedina had some great pictures from past ESCONI events.  Here are a series of pictures from a Pit 11 field trip in September 1976.  Notice the lack of vegetation!  It looks much different today.

ESCONI Field Trip to an Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in Roscoe, IL July 13th, 2019

There will be a field trip for ESCONI members on Saturday, July 13, 2019 to an Ordovician, hard-rock quarry in Roscoe, IL (north of Rockford). We visited this quarry before in May 2017. The trip starts at 9 AM and ends at 12 noon. Rules are as follows:

1. You must be an ESCONI member as of July 10, 2019.
2. Everyone in your party must be at least 18 years of age.
3. Because this is a combined trip with RRVGMS, there are only 20 open slots for ESCONI members.
4. The address of the quarry is 6832 Swanson Rd, Roscoe, IL.
5. We will have site-specific training at the quarry, and everyone will sign a waiver.
6. You must have the following safety gear: sturdy (preferably steel-toed) boots, hard hat, safety glasses and safety vest.
7. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to sign-in at the quarry. By signing you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the ESCONI waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to.

To sign up for this field trip, send me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending. My email address is: fossil54@att.net  No phone calls please. Do NOT call the quarry. I will confirm via return email within 24 hours. If you do not hear back from me within that time, send it again!

 

ESCONI Upcoming Field Trips For 2019

The upcoming field trips for the remainder of the year are:

• Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry, Roscoe, IL July 13
• Mazon Creek, Braceville, IL Sept 14, 15 (tentative dates)
• Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry, Belvidere, IL Sept. 21
• Gravel Pit, Rockford, IL Oct 12
• Benedictine Museum, Lisle, IL Oct. 19 or 26 (tentative date)

Registration opens when the trip announcement is posted on the website, usually about a month before the trip. There are no early registrations. I am working on a trip in August, but it is
not set yet. Keep watching the website for more information!

Dave Carlson, fossil54@att.net

Flashback Friday #4: Braceville Trip 05/16/2009

As part of the run up to ESCONI's 70th Anniversary.  Here is Flashback Friday post #4.  If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Thanks!

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Sometimes referred to as "Worm Hill", the Braceville spoil pile dates to at least the 1880s.  ESCONI hasn't been going here since then, but we do have a long history of visiting to collect Mazon Creek concretions.  It has provided many nice jellyfish, worms, shrimps, shark egg cases, cyclus, clams, and even the occasional plant fossil over the years.   We have both Spring and Fall field trips.  If you missed the trip this Spring, please try again this Fall.  We'll post our announcement sometime in August.

Here's a great report from Andrew Young of the Braceville Field Trip on May 16th, 2009.

 

    

     Anyone who’s traveled I-55 toward St. Louis, say, an hour or so outside of Chicago, has likely spotted a number of large, anomalous, volcano-like piles spread out on private property along old Rt. 66. Almost without vegetation, they are other-worldly and towering above the grain fields around them. The “spoil heap” of Braceville, Illinois, is no exception; in fact, it may be the most distinctive and alluring of these remnants from the shaft mining days over a hundred years ago.

     Braceville was a burgeoning coal mining settlement of the late 19th century, and once claimed 3,500 residents at its height in the 1870’s. High quality coal was discovered not far below the ground which supplied many localities in northeastern Illinois, including a rapidly growing (and energy needy) Chicago. Longwall mining systems employed in England were replicated in Will and Grundy counties, using an intricate lattice of wood-supported shafts, rail cars and mule teams to extract the coal. According to the records, the town sported six general merchandise stores, two banks, a hotel, two restaurants and 18 other retailers that thrived until the summer of 1910 when the miners of the Braceville Coal Company went on strike. Instead of negotiating with its employees, the ownership simply closed the operation and, within months, the town was all but abandoned, leaving behind an opera house, a large-frame school and many empty businesses.

         

     A by-product of extracting anything from the earth is usually a disproportionate amount of waste material: usually stone, sometimes toxic. The undesirable rock – in this case, Francis Creek Shale – was conveyed into giant cone-shaped heaps and left to dissolve back to the earth. Aside from the unusual scale and placement of these “gob piles,” one would have little notion today that they were industrial at all, much less part of an important economic shift in the Midwest. Save for a few shards of wooden plank, rusted metal rings and spikes, and, of course, weathered-out chunks of coal, there is virtually no evidence of the great structures and process that transformed the region. 

    

     For all of the coal mining days past and beyond, it’s been known that concretions containing fossils were a residue of the operation. More often a hazard to the miners (indicating weaker shaft ceilings), they were once harvested for the iron they contained. Imagine railroad cars full of concretions heading for smelting in the blast furnaces of Indiana and Missouri...Today, we scour these heaps looking for nodules and the treasures they might contain. It’s not only an inversion of value, but a race against time; a hundred years or more of exposure to the elements grants access both to the collector and to the acids of rain and decaying sulfurous coal, even lightning, in this case. Red, ochre, and black seams in the eroded sides of the pile indicate the presence of nodules, but also of oxidation – the enemy to any fair fossil preservation. On the discovery side, it’s a matter of who will get to the center of a stone first: the eager collector – who will employ the patience-testing freeze/thaw technique, or render an expedient, if not more risky, hammer blow – or Nature herself, with winter and water reducing a once-hard concretion to silt and sand, thus erasing any evidence of prehistoric life.   

                                                

     A visit to the Braceville spoil pile last year through ESCONI granted me a couple of buckets full of rocks in various shapes and sizes. To be honest, I had no real idea of what I was looking for, save that a concretion, I knew, is harder than its surrounding matrix. Most were encrusted, and some even corrupted by oxidation all the way through. I heard that the more classically round or ovoid nodules typically contained jellies, and that very much proved to be the case. More spherical or flattened stones could yield other sorts of animals, or even a fern, but most of those were frustratingly blank and have been since relegated to the status of garden decoration.

    

     It is fascinating to consider the intensity with which we fossil “hunters” search for these elusive concretions. Some of us come equipped with picks and shovels similar to the very tools used when the material was moved the first time. Boots and hammers allow us to scramble up the slippery gullies; bags and buckets harbor the coveted finds for later investigation. Though fossiling appears in so many ways to be a solitary activity – competitive, almost protective – I heard many whispers among the muddied visitors this year as to high-value insects being found at Braceville: last year, a Tully Monster. People showed off their prizes to one another, even raised unopened stones for the power they must have. I truly understand this latter impulse, for I have a few large and “perfect” unopened concretions that I’ve decided will remain this way. Knowing that we must practically destroy the stone to get inside it and, in all likelihood, it is blank or “only” a jelly, I have thought to stay in that zone of mystery in the process:  the historic unearthing and casting as “waste,” the assault of the elements and reburial, the new value we place on the object, its discovery and removal. With all due respect to scholarship and the unrivaled specimens the concretions of Mazon Creek provide, the point of highest potential, intention, enigma and magic for me is the surviving concretion discovered, complete and in hand…300 million years in the waiting.  Some will have to hold their secrets just a little longer.

        

     Note: The Braceville spoil pile is on private property and the owners have been generous to grant us limited group access for fossil collecting. Please respect this privilege and stay tuned for future field trips organized by ESCONI posted on this website.

     To see more pictures from the Braceville field trip, click on the Mazon Creek Collecting title in Photo Albums.

ESCONI Field Trip Photos: Braceville May 18th - 19th, 2019

Saturday was a little rainy, but Sunday was a beautiful day as the rain missed us to the north.  Turnout was higher on Saturday, probably due to the weather forecast.  There were lively discussions.  Give away fossils were provided by multiple individuals, thank you Andrew, Ralph, and Roger!  Everyone went home with both opened and unopened concretions... Good luck with the freeze thaw!

Here are some pictures that hopefully capture some of the fun!

ESCONI Field Trip to Rockford-area Gravel Pit - June 8th, 2019

There will be a field trip to a gravel pit in the Rockford area on June 8th, 2019. This is the same location that has been visited before. Because this is a shared trip with the Rockford club (RRVGMS) there is space for 20 ESCONI members. The trip will be from 9 AM to 12 noon.   

1. You and everyone in your group must be a member of ESCONI by June 5th.  Have your membership status resolved by then.
2. The minimum age to attend this trip is 18 years old.
3. Hard hats are required! 
4. You will be required to sign a waiver from the quarry.
5. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to sign-in at the quarry. By signing you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to.
6. ESCONI members can sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending and their names. My email is fossil54@att.net   No phone calls please. Do not call the quarry.
7. I will acknowledge by return email. If you don't get a reply in 24 hours, send it again!
8. The address is 6230 Beltline Rd. Rockford, IL 61109

Note: this is a sand and gravel quarry, not the usual hard rock quarry in Rockford.  There are fossils, but they come from the glacial till.  So, if you are in the mood for a general rock collecting trip, this is for you!