Collecting Fossil Plants and Animals
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
Return to georgesbasement

Field Notes - 1948
Date in 1948
Activities of George Langford, Sr. [in the handwriting of George Langford, Jr. transcribed from GL, Sr.'s notes].
April 17
With [Dr. and Mrs. Robert H.] Whitfield at mines in Locality No. 4 [see Book II - GL,III]
April 24
With S.H.L. [Mrs. Sydne Holmes Langford - GL,Jr.] in Locality No. 3.
April 26
Again in Locality No. 3.
May 1
[Went] with [Eugene S.] Richardson [Jr.] to strip mines in Locality No. 3.
May 14
I left Chicago at 7:45AM, arrived 9:45AM, collected from 10:30AM to 6:30PM in Locality No. 5 - one-and-one-quarter pails.
May 15
It rained hard last night.  Morning [was] cold, windy & cloudy.  Better from noon on.  Whitfields came down.  I collected in Locality No. 3 in the A.M. - one pail.  In Locality No.4 in the P.M. - one pail.  Dinner at Braidwood.
May 16
Day clear but strong west wind. Collected at Locality No. 3 - one pail.  Dinner at Braidwood.
May 17
Cold at night, morning cool, fine, clear and warm after 10:00AM.  Collected in Odontopteris Locality No. 31 until 5:30PM; then Alethopteris Locality No. 11.  One pail.  Dinner at Weitz, Braidwood.
May 18
Day clear and warm.  Collected east and west of Odontopteris Locality No. 31.  Three-quarter pail, day not so good.  Dinner at Wilmington.
May 19
Almost frost at night, but after 9:30AM the weather was fine, clear & warm.  Collected in Locality No. 5 on the south & north; one pail.  Dinner at Weitz, Braidwood.
May 20
Weather clear and quite warm.  I collected in the west part of Locality No. 3 until 10:00AM, then quit to clean up and pack for home.  Twenty and one-half miles from Kramer's [Motel] to Plainfield, the nine-and -one-half miles to Joliet intersection, then nine miles to Hinsdale, then nineteen miles to 1726 N. LaSalle Street.  Arrived at the Field Museum 2:00PM.
May 30
With GL, Jr. [George Langford, Jr.] at Locality No. 20 and Locality No. 21.  Then in new locality east of the Tipple [never identified by any number on maps - GL,Jr.]. Two pails.
July 11
I drove with S.H.L. to Joliet to see the Skeens.  Then I went to the strip mines.  Stopped at Kramer's [cabins].  Went to new spot on road [not identified by number] Went to Tipple at 1:00PM.  Half a pail.  Not so good.  Weather mighty hot and so I spent three hours under a tree.
July 12
I went to Odontopteris Locality No. 31 near the Santa Fe tracks..  The sun was so hot that I quit at 10:00AM.  Rain at 1:00PM, so I got out of there in a hurry.  Went to Pig Pen [Locality No. 3] at 3:00PM.  Weather hot again.  I worked to 5:30PM and got over half a pail.
July 13
GL,Jr. came down from Hinsdale and we spent the day along the south shore of Long Pond [Locality No. 7 and Locality No. 8].  The day was hot but not like the two days before, as there was a refreshing northeast breeze and the sun was overcast a good part of the day.  We got a lot of good stuff; George, Jr. got most of the fine ones: worm, spider and Acanthotelson.  We were at it for over eight hours.
July 14
Cloudy and cool, one light sprinkle.  I spent the whole day in the Pig Pen on southeast side of Locality No. 3.  Louis Knowlton of Joliet came down in the evening for a visit.
July 15
Returned to the Museum, arriving 10:30AM.
August 19 & 20
Hot in the sun yesterday and today, quite cool at night.  I have been on the southeast side of the Pig Pen [Locality No. 3] these two days and have two-and-one-half pails [of fossils].
August 21
On south shore of Long Pond [Locality No. 7] the three days I have been here,  Clear sky and hot all three days.
Sept. 16-18
Trip to coal mines.  I took Orville Gilpin [Field Museum preparator] with me.  We left home at 7:00AM on the 16th, Thursday.  We entered Pig Pen area at 10:30AM and drove west to ditch, then parked and walked west to north-south line of cottonwood trees on south side of Long Pond [Locality No. 7 and Locality No. 8].  Collected in heaps to the pond, moving about two hundred yards west.  Good picking.  Weather close and hot.  On Friday the 17th we spent the whole day in the same place, but further west and working three hundred yards west [probably Locality No. 8 - GL,Jr.]  Collecting not so good.  Weather still clear and hot.  Lunched on site.  On the 18th we were tired; rain in the A.M., so we decided to drive home, arriving at the Field Museum at 10:45AM.  Sky cleared and weather became very hot.  On our trip we spent actually about one-and -three-quarter ten-hour days collecting.  We got:

Plants
Number
Size

244
Large

40
Small
Total
284
11 new ?



Animals
Fragmentary
Fine
Crabs
8
...
Spiders
...
4
Paleocaris
...
2
Acanthotelson
5
3
Bivalves
1
...
Fish scales
1
1
Snail
...
1
Ostracod
...
1
                                Total: 27 animals

September 25
Went down with the Whitfields.  Arrived 10:30AM and worked on south side of Long Pond [probably Locality No. 7 - GL,Jr.] until 12:30PM.  Went to Odontopteris site [Locality No. 31] in afternoon; poor luck.  I got fifty large and thirty-two small specimens.
Oct. 7-9
Went down with Orville Gilpin Thursday morning.  It poured rain as far as Hinsdale.  It stopped a bit and we went into Pig Pen, southeast side [probably Locality No. 7 - GL,Jr.] Rain drove us into car several times, but we finished the day there.  On Friday A.M. the sky was clear.  We went into Pig Pen on the southwest side [probably Locality No. 7 and Locality No. 8 - GL,Jr.] until noon. Then after lunch we went far west beyond the line of cottonwood trees to [probably - GL,Jr.] Locality No. 17.  Rain came up about 3:00PM and drove us out about 5:00PM, soaking wet and cold.  We left early Saturday A.M.:

Flora
Number
Attribute

158
Large

208
Small

12
Fine

5
New



Fauna
Type
Number

Pelecypods
18

Spiders
2

Acanthotelson
2

"
1

Fish scale
1

Ostracod
1

Eurypteris ?
1

Animals
2

Arthropod (new)
1

Euproops
5

Total
34
Three
fauna appear new.


Oct. 18-19
Went alone to the strip mines on Monday.  Cold that morning, becoming milder as sun came out.  I went to the south side of Long Pond, very far into the west [probably Locality No. 28 - GL,Jr.]  Tuesday was warmer.  I worked on the southeast side of Pig Pen [Locality No. 3] until noon.  Left for Chicago at 1:15PM arriving at the Field Museum at 3:30PM.

Type
Number
Attribute
Large flora
78
3 fine rare plants
Small flora
63
1 new plant
Bivalves
4
...
Crabs
4
...
Total
149


October 23
Went with Dr. [Robert H.] Whitfield and Jack Whitfield to one mile south of Wilmington on north side [probably Locality No. 25 or Locality No. 24 - GL,Jr.] where I had found two craw-dads.  Weather just right.

Plants
Attribute
Number

Large
43

Small
25
Total

68



Animals
Type
Number

Fish scales 1

Crab
1

Ostracod
1

Snail
1

Bivalve
1

Acanthotelson
1
                                          Total: 6 small nodules

November 13
Weather cool at first, becoming clear and fine by noon.  Went with the Whitfields and began on southeast side of Pig Pen Road [Locality No. 3].  I found two insects and two new plants.  Went to Coal City after supper at Braidwood and spent until 11:00PM with [Mr. & Mrs. Peter] Enrietta.  I stayed in a Wollard cabin; the Whitfields stayed at Manor Lodge, ten miles north.
November 14
I suggested east side of Pig Pen [Locality No. 3] but we went down by the Santa Fe tracks [near Locality No. 23 ? - GL,Jr.] and were stuck two-and-one-half hours in a sand hole.  We then drove several miles north and west to a spot [apparently in Grundy County, but not specifically identified - GL,Jr.] and collected for one hour.  Went home past the [Dan] Fisher farm [where George, Sr. excavated many Indian mounds and lodge pits back in the 1920's - GL,Jr.]

Flora Attribute
Number

Large
44

Small
34

New
2

Total
80



Fauna



Insects
2 new

Acanthotelson
1

Bivalves
3

Fish scales
1

Total
7

Dec. 15-18
No snow and not much below freezing.  I could have gone to the strip mines most days.

[unsigned, but in the handwriting of] George Langford, Jr.