This is Throwback Thursday #294. 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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25 Years Ago – December 2000

• Ray Wiggers was the speaker at the ESCONI Holiday Party, which was held at the Greek Island Restaurant in Lombard, IL.
• The Mineralogy/Micromount Study Group was holding a mineral identification contest.
• Karen’s Komments discussed a Field Museum trip to collect dinosaurs in northern Mexico. Both Karen Nordquist and Irene Broede participated. The area is close to Chicxulub , which makes it an interesting place to study the K-T boundary.
• John Betts wrote an article about mineral cleaning.

50 Years Ago – December 1975

• The topic of the General Meeting was “Rock Hunting in Old Mexico”. The presentation was by Ruth Hoff.
• Mineralogy was discussing “Tin”. The meeting was led by Jack Schnizlein.
• The Micro-Mount of the Month was Wulfenite.
• There was a report about the International 75 Midwest and Central Federation and Show. Bruce Lauer won a trophy for the best micromount display and Rich Rock was 3rd with a display Mazon Creek fossils.

70 Years Ago – December 1955

• The Regular Meeting topic was “Digging Down to Dotham”. It was given by Dr. Joseph P. Free, who is chairman of the Department of Archaeology at Wheaton College. He spent multiple seasons in Palestine and the Holy Land.
• “Know Your Minerals” was an article in the newsletter that had a list of the most common elements in the Earth. Iron at 31.82% was the clear winner.
• The “Kensington Stone” hoax was discussed in another article in the newsletter. The stone was found by Olaf Ohman in 1898. Ohman was a a Swedish-American farmer living in Minnesota. The stone was supposedly covered in Norse Runes. For a time, it was thought to be authentic, but John Gran, a friend of Ohman, confessed it was a prank in 1927.