in the Pennsylvanian Deposits of the Will County, Illinois Coal Measures
The Field Notes of George Langford, Sr. in the Years 1937-1960.
Prepared and organized by George Langford, Jr., 1973.
Copyright George Langford, III, 2010
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Strip Mining; and the Collectors: George Langford, Sr. and George Langford, Jr.
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Strip Mining Equipment These are the big machines used to
strip the clay overburden from on top of the coal seam. On the
left is a dragline - on the right, a boom shovel. Both are
electrically operated.
This picture was taken about on the Will County - Grundy County line, west of the Santa Fe and Alton Railway tracks, near Locality No. 11. |
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Strip Mine Spoil Heaps This "moonscape" image was blown up from a very small transparency - the negative having long since disappeared. The shot was taken looking toward the northeast from the high peak at Locality No. 11. We didn't take many pictures of the spoil heaps - or of our collecting activities - so I had to use any prints, transparencies, or slides that had survived the years - but this particular one gives a very good idea of the sense of desolation that is experienced while collecting. |
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Spoil Heaps and Pond This shot of Locality No. 3 from across the pond at Locality No. 4 was used by George, Sr. and Sydne Holmes Langford as a Christmas card in 1939. The camera was facing southeast. The fossils are identified here. |
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Strip Mine Spoil
Heaps - with George Langford, Sr. and George Langford, Jr. for Scale
This panoramic view was taken at Locality No. 11, facing west from a very high spoil heap peak, about seventy feet above the surrounding marshy land. George Langford, Sr. is standing on the peak summit ... and George Langford, Jr. is farther soutwest on the high ridge. Legend: (a) An electrically operated dragline stripping machine; (b) An electrically operated shovel; and (c) The main line of the Santa Fe and Alton Railways. |
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| This
shot
was
taken
from across Long Pond at Locality
No.
7 facing
south. George Langford, Sr. is about in the center of the picture
with his collecting equipment. Right-click on the image and
select "view image" to see it at full resolution. |
This
shot
of
George
Langford, Jr. was taken at Locality
No.
22 facing
southeast. These were very recently created spoil heaps - the
ponds had only recently filled with water - and not too many nodules
had yet weathered out to where they were readily visible. |
This
shot
of
George
Langford, Jr. was taken facing west at Locality
No.
11. George, Jr. is standing on the summit of the highest
peak,
about seventy feet above the surrounding flat land. There were
very few nodules to be found in this very large area. |
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| George
Langford,
Jr.
using a glacial boulder as an anvil on which to split a
nodule with a brickmason's hammer. |
George, Sr. collecting nodules washed out of a small gully. The snapshots in this row were made in a convenient gully at Locality No. 3 in 1938. | George
Langford,
Sr.
using his feet to hold the nodule to be split. Note
the collecting bag and pails. The rolled-up Saturday Evening Post
magazines were handy as protective wrapping material for the split
nodules. |