This is Mazon Monday post #295.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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Michele Micetich, curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum, provided the photos in this post. The photos are part of the Tom Testa collection at the museum. On the back of the photos, there are notes written by Ida Thompson to Melbourne McKee, a chemist for the Peabody Coal Company in the Coal City area. Ida was working with Ralph Johnson of the Field Museum in Pit 11 in 1968.

Ida Thompson is probably best known for writing the “Audubon Society field guide to North American Fossils” in 1982.

However, knowledgeable Mazon Creek people will know her for her work describing most of the Mazon Creek worms. In 1979, she wrote the paper “Errant polychaetes (Annelida) from the Pennsylvanian Essex Fauna of Northern Illinois”, which was published in the journal Palaeontographica.  That paper included descriptions of multiple Mazon Creek Polychaetes taxa, including Astreptoscolex anasillosus, Dryptoscolex matthiesae, Fossundecima konecniorum, Didontogaster cordylina, Rhaphidiophorus hystrix, Rutellifrons wolfforum  and  Pieckonia helenae. In 1977, she also described Esconites zelus with Ralph Johnson in “New Fossil Polychaete from Essex, Illinois” and named it for ESCONI.

Ralph Gordon Johnson (1927-1976) was a professor of invertebrate paleontology at the University of Chicago for nearly 20 years. Among other important work, he worked closely with Eugene Richardson, Jr, of the Field Museum to describe many of the invertebrates of Mazon Creek, including Tullymonstrum gregarium.

Melbourne McKee (1910-1995) was a chemist with the Peabody Coal Company. McKee is standing in the photo below. The sitting man is Robert Tarman, assistant Chemist.

A famous photo of McKee shows him standing in front of the coal seam as it existed in the Braidwood, Wilmington, Coal City area.

McKee is in the center of this photo taken in Pit 14, where coal balls were commonly found.

In 1968, Ida was working with Ralph Johnson and others at Pit 11. This series of photos was taken during collecting trips to Pit 11.

This might be the head wall!

At Ponderosa Lake…

The back of this one had…

Our favorite lunch spot in the Ponderosa.

I’ll keep you supplied with new publication.

Ida

“Clear Lake”, was this Long Lake?

Charlie, Peter Kranz, Ralph and his son on the beautiful banks of incline #5 (we call it Clear Lake)

Melbourne McKee and Charles Shabica are in this photo. The photo appeared in the October 1968 Field Museum Bulletin article “Jellyfish in them thar hills” (see Mazon Monday #158).

Dear Melburn,

This shot turned out very well and I think the Bulletin will use it. Ralph tells me today he thinks we’d better stay at the Museum this week and wash and catalog fossils – we’re way behind. It may be a while (months?) before we see you again. Thanks for the all your help this summer. It’s be good seeing you.

Ida

The Carbon Hill School Museum is an interesting place with many artifacts that document everyday life over the last 150+ years in the Carbon Hill, Coal City, Diamond, Braidwood, and Wilmington area. The museum is open every Monday from Noon – 4 PM or by appointment. It’s an invaluable source for learning about the area’s history.