REGULAR CLUB ACTIVITIES

MEETINGS...
Meetings are held on the third Monday of every month at the Illinois State Museum at 502 S. Spring Street. Meetings are open to the public.

Members visit with one another and check out what's on display on the Show and Tell Table while waiting for the meeting to begin.

FIELD TRIPS...
Field trips are conducted monthly from March through November (weather permitting) and are usually held on the Saturday immediately following the club meeting. Trips can take members an hour away or, on occassion, several days away. Extended field trips have been taken to Arkansas, South Dakota, North Carolina, and the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. LOESS has also joined with the Illinois State Geological Survey on their field trips.

Members, with hard hats in place, search for treasures in a quarry.

On this stock pile in a quarry in southern Illinois, members eagerly gather up small specimens of the state mineral - fluorite.

Fossils could be hiding in this dried-up stream bed in Wisconsin.

Members are hoping to find some gems, such as rubies and sapphires, by sluicing through buckets of dirt at this location in North Carolina.

This member discovers some beautiful agates scattered on this beach along the shores of Lake Superior.

Here members have been equipped with special gear and are waiting to be taken 1000 feet underground into a working lead mine in Missouri.

Sometimes a field trip is an indoor event. Here members are being given a tour of the geology lab at the Illinois State Museum's Research and Collection Center. We have also visited other museums like the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

There's always some humor...

One of our enthusiastic "field-trippers" tries to convince other members of the virtues of using a little red wagon to help bring back the "big ones."

This member, buried under a tarp in the hot sun to check for fluorescent minerals, makes for an interesting sight.

Humorous in retrospect only, a member in trouble caused the group to drop their hammers and put their muscle into helping out.

WORKSHOPS...
During the winter months, when field trips are out of the question, workshops are planned for members to introduce them to a new facet of the hobby or to increase their skills.

One of the club's talented lapidarists instructs fellow members in the basics of the lapidary arts.

An enthusiastic craftsperson offers some tips on the techniques of beadstringing.

Members explore various types of display cases they can build to showcase their treasures.

MONTHLY BULLETIN...
Membership activites, news of upcoming events, and general hobby-related articles come to members each month in the LOESS Bulletin. In 1995, The LOESS Bulletin received a first place trophy for small bulletins in the Midwest Federation Bulletin Editors' competition.

The many contributions by members make this bulletin interesting and enjoyable to read.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE