This is Throwback Thursday #264. 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 send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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MAPS EXPO 2025 starts tomorrow May 8th through 9th in Springfield, IL at the Joe Orr Building in the Illinois State Fairgrounds.  MAPS (Mid-American Paleontology Society) was founded in 1978.  It claims to be the largest fossil only show in the world.

Michele Micetich of the Carbon Hill School Museum has photos from the Tom Testa Collection.  The following photo from MAPS V is part of it.

The MAPS website has this small film clip and a few photos from MAPS 31 in 2009.

Marv Houg with some fantastic Iowa trilobites

John Catalani talking Nautiloids

Doug DeRosear with some beautiful fossil leaves

The Tom Testa photos are courtesy of the Carbon Hill School Museum‘s Tom Testa Collection.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?), his fossils reside at the Field Museum, but the Carbon Hill School Museum has many of Tom’s photos and documents.  The museum is located in Carbon Hill, IL.  It has many historically significant photos, artifacts, and documents of the Coal City, Braidwood, and Wilmington area.  The curator, Michele Micetich, is very knowledgeable.  Visit her this summer for a trip back in time to the coal mining days of yesteryear!