We camped out at our usual camp site and as usual the wind blew most of the time. Barb being the clean person she is had problems with the dust, especially when she found a generous coating on her sleeping bag the next day.
Tuesday, we went back to our old site, EO2. We have been excavating here since 1999. When we left it last year, I did not have great hopes of finding much. I thought we could remove the remaining bones and the quarry would be finished. But as happens so often, we found the bone layer was just deposited in a different direction and it looks like we will be digging there for a while longer. I have included some photos of the site itself and of part of the deposit.
That evening, Barb and I visited a favorite rock hounding site of ours. We had the museum’s portable fluorescent light. We had a fun time checking out the colors of the rocks as they fluoresced when we noticed a very bright greenish glow. We checked it out and found it was a scorpion and over the next little while, found many other scorpions of varying sizes. After the first dozen or so, Barb stopped screaming and actually thought they were interesting.
Wednesday, the wind was still blowing, however the temperature had dropped several degrees and it was quite chilly. Talking it over with Barb and Bill we decided to try to continue our excavations at EO2 in spite of the weather. We were partially sheltered while we were excavating but the morning shade we enjoy on hot days kept us cooler than we wanted. We were able to remove several bones before we finally gave up, closed up the quarry, broke camp and headed home.
Thursday, when I arrived at the museum I found that some of the staff had helped me out with the fluorescent mineral display and the display was progressing very well. We spent the day continuing to arrange minerals and tweak the interpretation. This continued into Friday when we attached the interpretation to the back panel.
We have wired the display so that when the button is pushed, the white light turns off and the fluorescent lights turn on. They stay on for about 50 seconds and then they turn off and the white light comes back on. We have two cases. One with minerals from out of the state and the other case is filled with fluorescent minerals from the state of Utah.
Also on Thursday, Ken Carpenter and a couple of his volunteers stopped by to look at our collections. We spent a few hours checking out Eolambia, Gastonia, Animantarx and Peloroplites bones. We are working with Rob Gaston on a mount of Peloroplites and Ken helped with the positioning of the armor around the neck.
Friday evening I went camping with my grandson and several others. I took our portable fluorescent light along and that night I checked out the local rocks and found some of them to be very beautiful. I asked some of the others if they would like to do a night hike with me and several tagged along. While looking at the minerals, we discovered some scorpions that fluoresced very well. I have included one of the photos. It is a bit blurry but my camera was having trouble with the fluorescent light.
Saturday, my friends and I joined our wives and others for a tour of Nine Mile Canyon lead by Tom McCourt. Tom has lived in the area all of his life and has spent many, many days exploring the rock art and archaeological sites of Nine Mile. His knowledge of the canyon’s history and prehistoric treasures is second to none.
I have included some photos of some of the fantastic rock art.
It has been a busy but fun week!
