Hello, someone just referred me to your site and I enjoyed some of the pictures you had posted. I have attached three pics I took last year when I stumbled onto what I and my friends have called, the mother load. I had never hunted in this particular area before and had been hunting for a couple of hours one evening with marginal success. It was about a half an hour before dark when I thought I would check a spot where I could see a large dead elm standing. I walked into the area and saw a couple immediately. When I stooped to pull them I looked ahead and all I could see was one after the other! I quickly picked one grocery sack full as I continued to move forward. The straps on my bag tore and I continued to fill it until it could hold no more. It was becoming dark anyway so I figured I would come back the next evening. As I was exiting I ran into this huge patch unlike anything I had ever seen! I brought two of my friends with me the next evening to see it and they too had never seen anything like it. We proceeded to pick the five bags in the picture that evening and probably left another 2 or 3 bags of unpicked ones there because they had been up awhile and were mushy. I was a few days late in finding this patch. In total, I harvested 6 grocery bags, totalling somewhere around 40-50 lbs. from this one area that measured about 25 ft. by 25 ft. You can see from the photos that they are everywhere. I have an 8x10 that I enlarged and have in my office. Everyone who sees it says they have never seen anything like it. Needless to say, I have had plenty of offers to help me look this year. I'm anxious to see how this area produces this year.

- photo and story courtesy of the Ken in Peoria, IL.