This is Mazon Monday post #186.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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ESCONI and the Carbon Hill School Museum sponsored “Mazon Creek Fossil Day” on October 14th, 2023.  The event was a celebration of Mazon Creek amateur fossil collectors and their contributions to Paleontology.  There were fossil displays, two presentations, and 5+ hours of interesting conversation.

Ralph Jewell has post with many photos over on The Fossil Forum.

Dr. Eugene Richardson Jr wrote this in his “The Amateur Fossil-Hunters – Paleontology’s Unsung Heroes” article for the March 1975 edition of the Field Museum’s Bulletin.

Today, more than ever, fossil collecting is a popular hobby and a serious preoccupation of many people. In the Chicago area the name of fossil collectors is legion, most of them concentrating their efforts on the Coal-age fossils from the Illinois strip mines.

It is only because the amateurs devote thousands of man-hours to the job that some of the very rare fossil species have been found. And, significantly, it is only because of their generous cooperation in lending or donating specimens for study by trained paleontologists that these species can ever be made known to science.

Here are photos of some of the attendees

And, now for some awesome fossils…

Note: the photos in this post came from multiple sources.  Thanks go out to Ralph Jewell and Andrew Young!