The story is available for a small fee through our archive. You're
welcome to post a link to that.
https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/Archive/abridged2.bat?path=2004/040702/FOSSILS&search=mazon%20creek
Thanks for your interest,
Alison True
Editor
For
free, here is my letter to the editor that was published this
week:
To the editors:
The disappearance of accessible Mazon Creek fossil sites,
discussed in Mike Sula's excellent article, is a loss not only to the
community of dedicated amateur paleontologists, but to the people of
Illinois, especially our children. For decades, schoolchildren
learned about ancient life firsthand, not just in museums and from books,
but by collecting their own fossils from Mazon Creek sites. They could
also go with groups to private quarries that exposed fossil-containing
rocks from other periods of earth history. Liability fears have now
made many of these inaccessible.
Other places have recognized the recreation, tourism, and
educational value of accessible fossil collecting sites. Mazon
Creek is internationally known; as suggested, a portion of
Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area should be set aside for
collecting and periodically turned over with earth moving
equipment.
The article may leave a misleading impression about the
relationships between amateur and profession paleontologists. The
professional Paleontological Society makes an annual award to amateurs
for "outstanding achievement in paleontology." These amateurs
invariably have made close personal relationships with professionals and
students; many have published in professional journals.
Finally, it was wonderful to see public recognition given to
Gene Richardson. He was a gentleman in the finest sense of the
word; his premature death was a loss to all paleontologists, both amateur
and professional.
Roy E. Plotnick
Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
845 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL 60607
plotnick@uic.edu
office phone: 312-996-2111 fax:
312-413-2279
lab phone: 312-355-1342
web page:
http://www.uic.edu/~plotnick/plotnick.htm
"The scientific celebrities, forgetting their molluscs and
glacial periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to
oysters and ices with characteristic energy.." -Little Women,
Louisa May Alcott