Digging With 4-Hers

We had a crew of three 4-Hers and their chaperone join us last week, July 12^th through the 16^th at the Swarez Site near Green River. We met at the Museum of the San Rafael in Castle Dale. This is an undiscovered museum that more people should visit. This museum is a natural history museum and contains displays on dinosaurs and Indian artifacts. They have an excellent display of stuffed animals from the area and a small mineral exhibit; several murals are a great addition to the displays.

After our short tour of the museum, we headed south and took the Moore Cutoff Road where we visited the Rochester Panel.

Photos of this panel have appeared in many national and international publications. After which we saw the dinosaur tracks that were uncovered during the construction of that road. We connected up with I-70 and headed east to the next off ramp where we headed north into the San Rafael Swell. The geology of this area is known world-wide and the ages of the rocks cover the Permian to as young as the Cretaceous.

The San Rafael Swell is rich in artifacts left by ancient man as well as fossils and geologic splendor. We visited the Buckhorn Panel and saw Matt Warner’s signature (he was a member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch). We also visited the worst kept secret in Emery County, the Buckhorn Dinosaur Track.

This track is believed to be from a dilophosaurus. In the upper part of the canyon the cliffs are formed from weathered Navajo sandstone. The Navajo sandstone is sand dune deposits that have lithified into rock. The cross-bedding of the petrified sand dunes is beautiful and I never tire of studying them.

On our way to the Swarez Site, we visited the Crystal Geyser and later we were able to witness an eruption.

Tuesday, we began excavations at the site. The weather was very hot (100 + degrees F). The bones continue to be abundant and in good condition. We were able to uncover several more specimens of the therizinosaur and the nodosaur over the next two days. Keeping cool and hydrated was our top priority.

Thursday, we closed up the quarry and headed for Price where the participants enjoyed a cooling dip in the Desert Wave Pool and were able to sleep in air conditioned comfort that night.

Friday, was spent in the lab prepping out some of the bones that were excavated that week. Unfortunately the heat had taken its toll and two of our participants did not feel well.

The week was a success. We accomplished our goals, forged new friendships and for the most part had another great week.

Digging with Californians

A father and son team Mehdi and Raayan arrived to go out with us June 29^th to the Swarez Site. The day was beautiful and sunny as we started out from the museum. Of course, we had to stop at Crystal Geyser near Green River, Utah. It was doing a little bubbling and teasing us with some two to three foot eruptions, but nothing more.

We reached the trailhead leading to Swarez just before lunch time so we ate an early lunch and loaded up our gear. We arrived at the site and while Bill gave a brief introduction to our California friends I commenced picking at the overburden. The overburden is about 5 feet thick over the bones and we needed to remove more overburden to continue excavating the bone bed. We each took our turn with the pick and shovels and finally we were able to uncover the bone bed, put up the shades and begin uncovering the fossil bones.

We were very successful during our two days. We found the first skull bone from the huge nodosaur we know to be deposited here. It is the right premaxillary beak. We also uncovered and collected other bones including two jaws and several pubis bones along with ungles etc. In the area Bill was working, several pieces of armor from the nodosaur were found. Unfortunately, it is imbedded in sandstone, making it difficult to remove. On our next trip, we will map the area and remove the sandstone in blocks and bring them back to the lab.

Monday and Tuesday the temperatures topped out at over 100 degrees so we were in no danger of freezing. The sunsets were beautiful as usual. The second evening Mehdi decided to hike to one of the peaks close by and enjoy the sunset.
We were fortunate that it cooled off in the evenings making it easy to sleep. We have been able to prep out some of the bones. Below is a therizinosaur jaw that we recovered.

Everyone had a great time and we hope to get together again in the future.

Casper the Friendly Conference

 The first week of June Ray Jones, Marvin Evans, Bill Heffner and I headed for Casper, Wyoming and the Tate College. They hosted the second annual conference for fossil preparators. The conference was held in the Tate Museum, a relatively new facility on campus complete with lab area, classroom facilities and a small display area with some very interesting displays. The staff is very friendly and professional and we had a great time.

 Friday, demonstrations were given on molding and casting, and on fossil preparation techniques. In the molding and casting demonstration we used Leggos™ to create the form around the fossil we were molding. Bill and Marvin worked on a therizinosaur ungal and Ray molded a phalanx. Because more people attended the conference than originally planned, this process went slower than expected. The pouring of the molds also went slower and consequently we were unable to pour our casts until the next day. The Leggos™ worked great and we are hoping to acquire some for our own molding and casting purposes here at CEU.

On Saturday, we heard several talks. Some were on fossil excavation in the field and others were on preparation in the lab using various chemicals and techniques. All were very informative. For lunch we were treated to a barbecue. It was great being able to discuss with our fellow preparators problems, solutions and techniques and also to share fun stories about our successes and other situations.

 Sunday we headed back. The road led us past Devil’s Gate and Martin’s Cove, a historic site. During the 1800’s many pioneers and westward travelers passed through this area. Some giving their lives in pursuit of their dreams. This area is beautiful during the warmer months but during the fall, winter and spring, this area can become a death trap and did for some.

The four of us had a great time and we brought back some good information and hope to be able to incorporate some of the ideas we heard about at the conference. Thanks to the staff at Tate for a great conference!