Indiana/Illinois Locations

[edwardcartwright]

Hey, everyone!
So, I live in northwest Indiana, and I'm looking for sites to collect rocks, minerals, and/or fossils in Indiana and Illinois. I'm actually a geology major, so I know a few sites, but not a whole lot; most of places I've been so far are just some random road cuts in southern Indiana. What are some good spots to look, either specific or general?
I'm currently thinking about going to Mazon Creek at some point in the future and searching around there, but I don't know where exactly to start. I've looked around a bit and seen that W 5000N road is a site that's pretty commonly thrown around.
Also, I'm interested in going around Crawfordsville, Indiana and looking around there, so any collection sites would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for any suggestions!

 

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[vpnavy]

Hey, everyone! So, I live in northwest Indiana, and I'm looking for sites to collect rocks, minerals, and/or fossils in Indiana and Illinois...

Welcome Aboard! Take a look at Forum: Indiana for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.

 

[digger460]

First, Welcome!

The Mazon River is a great place to find 300 million old fossils, from ferns to soft bodied little critters. Also, native american artifacts. Drawback, there is almost no place to hunt anymore legally. 30 years ago you could park by a bridge and walk down to the river, and have at it. But so many hunters were out there, that the landowners got fed up with people on there land, all the bridges have guard rails where the parking used to be, and with out that access there is literally no legal access to the river unless you have a kayak, and put in at Stratton State Park in Morris, Il right at Rt. 47 off I-80. That's where the Mazon empties into the Illinois River. Then you paddle up the Mazon, problem being is you never know how far you can go, because landowner's drop tree's over the river, (ya, I believe that is illegal according to a ranger I spoke with last year). If your really interested on giving it a try, I have access to the river about 25 miles upstream in the South Wilmington area. I have a couple of kayaks if you want to give it a try.

Kankakee State Park and the Starved Rock area might be a good area to try for geology. Never hunted there, but should be info online.

Then there's Mazonia State Park. You can hunt 300 million old fossils from ferns to little soft bodied critters. Area was a swamp back then, and strip mining for coal dug up the fossils. Just need a permit (free) at the entrance. You can either hunt by walking, or my favorite is to use kayaks on the lakes,(South Mazonia area) to hunt the shore line's. Be careful if you go out there when it warms up! You don't want to walk it when it warm's up. TICKS!!

PM me if you want to set up a kayak hunt sometime.

Happy Hunting!

 

[edwardcartwright]

Welcome Aboard! Take a look at Forum: Indiana for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.

Thanks! I wasn't aware that there was a forum specifically for Indiana, so I apologize if my post was redundant.

 

[ToddsPoint]

North of Chi. on Lake Michigan is IL Beach St. Park. Tons of cool rocks along the shore of Lake MI. I've hunted in IN not too far from Crawfordsville near Attica on the Wabash River. There are gravel pits near the river south of Attica that had tons of glacial drift rocks. I took a 5 gal. bucket in one of the quarries and asked to buy a bucket of rocks. The guy just smiled and said help yourself, no charge for a bucket. Gary

 

[hvacker]

A lot of N. Ill is gravels. Gravel pits all over. Fluorite was mined in S.Ill. I like hunting where mining has been done. Seems the miners get rid of a lot of overburden. In many cases miners have done a lot of the location of gem stuff. Follow the miners maybe.
I lived in N.Ill. If I was back there I might locate maps where the last ice age retreated. See if the ice pushed anything interesting before leaving town. I've heard of Canadians finding some gold this way.