Show 1 1 a Echoes from the ho dust Carnegie Museum became become interested in dinosaur bones during 1908 By Theodore ore l I E. E White Ia Paleontologist a at t Dinosaur National Monument Echoes from the Dust Feature is selected from the files Cites of the Vernal Express and printed as it actually appeared on the da date te of publication tion It AJ APRIL nn 29 1954 Probably the bones of the dinosaurs which have been dug dugout dugout dugout out of the cliff north of Jensen had been known to trappers cowboys and for many years but the Information information in formation did not reach anyone who was especially interested till the summer of 1908 when Dr 0 O. A. A Peterson of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg Pennsylvania told his colleague Dr Earl Douglass of the same institution that in 1892 while collecting fossils in the Uintah Basin for the American Museum of Natural History he had seen dinosaur bones along the Green River near Jensen Dr Douglass who was then collecting mammals in the Eocene rocks of the Uintah Basin Hasin immediately went in search of the deposits from which the fragments that Dr Peterson saw had come The remainder of the summer and much of the next was spent climbing up and down the steep hills that flanked Clanked the Green River north of Jensen looking for the deposit which was the source of the fragments But not till August 19 1909 was he rewarded by finding an articulated series of seven tail vertebrae of one of the huge reptiles in a sandstone ledge After a short delay necessary to present the magnitude of the work to the Director of the Carnegie Museum full scale operations were started in September of the same year on funds generously supplied by bythe bythe bythe the late Andrew Carnegie Dr Douglass realized that a large crew would be necessary to remove the overburden overburden- and collect the bones buried in the hard sandstone ne He lie enlisted the crew among the people who lived nearby and they worked all alI year except during the severest part of the winter till December 1922 at which time the Director concluded that the Museum had a adequate sample of the animals which were buried burled in the rocks Thoe Thoc who assisted Dr Douglass during most or all of the 13 years which he worked the quarry Included Joseph Ainge Charles Ainge J. J A A. A Kay J J. J LeRoy LeHoy Kay Clarence Nielson Frances Schuler William R R. C C. C Thorne E. E M M. York and Golden York So great was the enthusiasm of Dr Douglass for the study of the petrified bones tones that it proved to be contagious to two of the men who were working with him These two men are Dr J J. J LeRoy LeHoy Kay Curator of Vertebrae Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum and Dr Golden York of the University of Utah WHEN WilEN TIlE THE Carnegie Museum ceased operations at atthe atthe atthe the quarry the articulated skeletons of two dinosaurs were left partially uncovered Dr Douglass Stewart Director of the Carnegie Museum notified the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. D C C. C that this material could be collected at a relatively low cost As a result the United States National Museum started work in May 1923 with the late Dr C C. W W. Gilmore the foremost student of dinosaurs in North America in charge Their work was completed in August of the same year and the they obtained is now on exhibition in the National Museum After the National Museum had finished their work the University of Utah began operations to salvage the remainder of the materials left partially uncovered by Carnegie Dr Earl Douglass was invited to superintend the operations for the University and the work continued for the remainder of 1923 and part of 1924 This material is now on in the University Museum in Salt Lake City SOON AFTER the Carnegie Museum began Its operations and the richness of the quarry was realized Dr Douglass became apprehensive that would file a claim on the quarry which was on Public Lands and exact tribute from the museum for the privilege of working the quarry In order to forestall such a possibility he attempted to file a mineral minerai claim on the area but his claim was disallowed on the grounds that fossil bones were not mineral mineraI After his mineral claim was disallowed he began agitation for the area to be set aside as a National Monument so that it could not be exploited for personal gain by any Individual individual individual in in- or group of people His efforts were successful and on October 4 1915 President Wilson by proclamation set aside 80 acres of the public lands which included the quarry to be known as the Dinos Dinosaur ur National Monument and placed it under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service While the quarry was being actively worked by the Carnegie Museum and other institutions the National Park Service continued its of expediting the work and making tentative plans for a permanent exhibition of the dinosaur bones as they were found in the rock The initial work of putting this plan into effect was started during the depression years under the with Dr A. A C. C Boyle supervising the operations The cut through the hill preparatory to the actual uncovering of the bones was made during these years In 1938 other obligations called Dr Boyle away from tt this s work and he was succeeded by Harold arold Ratliff Daniel B B. B Beard followed Mr Ratliff and continued the work till it was shut down as a war emergency In 1944 Mr Beard was succeeded succeeded succeeded suc suc- by the present Superintendent Jess H H. H Lomba td FOR MANY years the people of western Colorado have known the beauty of the Can Canyons ons of the Green and Yampa Rivers above the Dinosaur quarry H It Ills is difficult to say which group or groups group campaigned most actively for these areas to be set aside for posterity but on July 14 1938 by proclamation of President J Franklin branklin D D. D Roosevelt the Dinosaur National Monument was expanded d to Include these scenic canyons canons and bring the total area arfa of the monument to about miles Because of the vast sums of money which must be spent during any war the natural action is towards economy as soon as the war is over For tt thus this s reason the work at the quarry was delayed in getting started again but funds have now been provided to hire a geologist and anda a few assistants to renew the work of uncovering the bones At present the men arc are actively engaged in this work and it is hoped that it now can be carried to completion |