Sharing My Story

From Alpha-Omega #96 (January-February 2001)

Work at the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum continues to
be varied and exciting. One of the fascinating things
about the museum is the calls we receive from outside
people who want to tell us about some interesting
fossil find that they have happened upon.

Colorado Dino Dig
In mid September out team of six diggers went for a
week to a excavation site in north western Colorado.
This is a site located on a private ranch just south
of Dinosaur National Monument Park. This is the famous
Morrison formation that has yields tons of Jurassic group
dinosaur bones. Dr. Carl Baugh is the primary excavator
(though he was not present this time) who made the initial
contact with the ranch owners. The bones we took from the
site are his and we brought them back to our museum in
"plaster field jackets" eventually to be prepared for display.
The field jackets allow us to safely transport the bones
from the excavation site. Often the bones are very fragile
and break and fragment easily. The outcropping where we
were working on is part of a dinosaur graveyard with the
remains of sauropods (the really big dinosaurs like
Camarasourus), stegosaurs and allosaurs being present.
Fossilized bones were literally laying on top of each
other in a jumbled mass. Most of them were "disarticulated"
meaning they were dis connected from other bones—no
complete or near complete skeletons. This was three days
of hot, sweaty and hard work. Here are some thoughts as
I came home from the dig:

Bang, bang, bang!! Hammer like pasche hitting the handle
end of a screwdriver against hard stone. Sometimes the
screwdriver would find soft yielding clay, or easily
fragmenting rock. After a time of pounding one look for
an easier way to accomplish the task. You look for cracks
in the rocks knowing that these are fracture points where
the adjoining rock can be more easily removed. However
often the rock presents rather unyielding face that
resists numerous hammer/screw driver assaults. One is
tempted to think of Pope Julian II's immortal query to
the famous artist, Michelangelo, How long, Michelangelo, how long?"
After the three day of such pounding one's upper hand
and wrist develops minor but definite aches and pains.
The sun is hot with gusts of wind blowing about swirls of dust."

We also had a air-powered jack hammer that helped remove
large pieces of rock. We were able to extricate many bones
from the ground, but not as many as we'd hoped. There was just
so much more there. We arrived this time with the idea that
this might be the last time to use this site. The Clinton
administration has been showing signs that they might nationalize
the ranch land and incorporate it into the already large
Dinosaur National Monument, This would prevent further
future excavation.

On our way back from the dig we received news that a freak
lawn mower accident had killed the owner of the ranch. Joe
and several of the dig team went to the man's funeral held
several days later in Louisiana. The man's family said that
this will not present future excavations by out team. Now
with George W. Bush's election hopefully this will not be
the case. For those of you who get the TBN channel I'd
recommend trying to catch Creation in the 21st Century.
Dr Carl Baugh is the host of this program and he provides
a good introduction to the creationist approach to origins.
While there is a variety of opinions about the models of
earth history among creationists—Dr Baugh's program is on
6:30 AM on Fridays. You may find it on at other times
in your area.