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Show STANDARD-EXAMINER SUNDAY, JULY 4, 1993 FEATURES EDITOR: 625-4270 HORIZONS TRAVEL WEDDINGS TELEVISION LISTINGS Left: A replica of a stegosaurus stands outside the Dinosaur National Monumentbuilding near Vernal. Below: Thisis part of a vertebra found toward the tip of the tail of an allosaurus. This pieceis just one that can be seen at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County. Greatfinds in Utah's ~Dinosaurland The area of Uintah Countythat includes Vernal and Dinosaur National Monument is known as Utah’s Dincsaurland. mw Dinosaur National Monument is about 20 miles from Vernal. To reach the monument, travel east from Vernal on U.S. 40. At the small farming communityof Jensen, Tracks of the Dinosaurs Part CHUCK WING/Standard-Examiner Vernal's fossil graveyard peers into primeval past By JANELLE BIDDINGER — muchlike today’s giraffe. And Standard-Examiner staff on a mural nearby, an allosaurus, DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT — The building that sur- the largest meat-eater of its day, rounds this world-famous quarry skin that looks strikingly like a sits angled and modernistic, like a cheetah. stark, isolated spaceship terminal in terrain that could pass for moon- ancient skeletons were spotted in scape. these dusty hills near Vernal, dino- He wants to shift our questions from “Where were those bones found?” to “What did that critter eat?” or “How did it walk?” He wants us to think of these creatures as we would of any animal, not as the scary beasts of “Jurassic Park.” The hit movie, he says, “focuses on dinosaurs as mon- Graysoil tinted with mauve and yellowcascades down hills marked only by scrubby sagebrush. And inside, exhibits portray dino- saurs have donned a newwardrobe; sters. not dinosaurs as dinosaurs.” saurs in skins just as strange as most of us grew up with. Martians to those of us who've accepted the authenticity of Sinclair “Most people,” said Dan Chure, the paleontologist at Dinosaur Na- Oil’s advertising. tional Monument, “come here with a 1950s image of dinosaurs.” Chure wants to revamp this perception of dinosaur as big lizard. Here, the long-necked diplodocus long recognizable as Sinclair’s green mascot is brown and yellow-spotted prowls in brown-and-ivory marked More than a centuryafter thefirst these days, they bear little resem- A first glance at the large cliff face blance to the oversized, smallbrained, gray and green lizards that makes up this quarry leaves goose bumps on arms and exclama- on a river bank, home to bronto- saurus, Stegosaurus, diplodocus and others. The bones lie exposed but not completely excavated — the cliff remains a time capsule for future scientists, said Chure. But these bones are the reason that thousands of dinosaur-lovers — some 507,000 last year — make the trek here. Nowhere else in the world can One stand on the spot where dino- saurs once lived and see so many tions hanging in the air. Bones, of their bones still in their final more than 2,000 of them, lie scat- resting place, said Chure. This untered and tossed, like the pieces of pretentious hill has offered up some a child’s pickup-sticks game tossed of modernity’s most amazing dinowilly-nilly in the mud. It’s now sol- saur finds. That includes, said id rock, but millions of years ago, Chure, “a number of specimens _ this cliff face was a muddy sandbar _that were, at the time of their disSee VERNAL on 6C turn on State Road 149 and travel seven miles. The monument museum, which is in the same building as the quarry, features exhibits on what is known about the large plant-eating dinosaurs that lived in this area 140 to 150 million years ago. In addition to information-packed displays, this story is told in murals and dinosaur replicas. There are also displays on the fewer meat-eaters of this ar- ea, including a skeleton of an allosaurus that was on display for years at the University of Utah before being returned to its home here. A shuttle bus carries visitors from a parking lot up a half-mile-long grade to the quarry and museum. In summer, hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; winter hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The quarry is just one part of this 211,000-acre monument, whichalso offers breathtaking natural beauty. The Green River winds through the monument, and there are manyriver rafting, mountain biking and hiking choices. Admission, good for seven days, is $5 per vehicle. Camping is available in the park for $8 per night. mw Utah State Fieid House of Natural History, at 235 E. Main, Vernal, is a state park. This museum contains many exhibits on the geologic past and natural history of eastern Utah. The museum was established in 1945 to house specimens and fossils found in this area, rather than lose themto larger, Eastern instituuons. The exhibits include a cast of a diplodocus skeleton. But perhaps its best-knownfeature is the outdoor dinosaur garden, which contains replicas of 16 life-sized dinosaur statues, including a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus. Admission to the museumis $1.25 for adults, 50 cents for children. For information on Utah's Dinosaurland, call (800) 477-5558. | Once just a farmer's bane, dinosaur s bones now bring fame to Price area By MARK SAAL Standard-Examiner staff PRICE — The old-timers around these parts remember the days when a dinosaur bone wasn’t quite the find it is today. “Hell, we've thrown dinosaur bonesat cows for years,” said Ray Downard, who spent most of his 78 years in Carbon Coun- Jurassic period of about 150 million years ago. The most imposing exhibit is the sand pit in the center of thefirst floor — here cows with.” are two dinosaurs, a meat-cating allosaurus and a plant-eating camptosaurus; lying in the sand next to themare the bones ofa camarasaurus and a stegosaurus. All four were excavated from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, 30 miles to the south erally litiering the countryside — that makesthe Price area among the world’s top spots when it comes to the prehistoric giants. And while the general public can no longer pick up the bones to harass resident cows (or for any other reason, for that matter, the Antiquities Act prohibits disturbing any dinosaur remains), there are sull plenty of places in and around the Price area where you can get your fill of the fossils. The College of Eastern Utah's Prehistoric Museumis one such place. Located smack in the middle of downtown Price, the mu- scum has one of the top dinosaur collections in the West. The museumis divided into two sections the Hall of Man and the Hall of Dinosaurs. The former includes the art and artifacts of carly Indians, as well as the At the CEUPrehistoric Museum, Johanna Borkan,8,(left) and sister Sasha, 4, of Portland, Ore., clean a dinosaur bone cast. covered. The latter features hundreds ofdinosaur bones, fossils and other objects. On thefirst floor of the Hall of Dinosaurs are the older fossils, representing the late ty. “They were just something to hit the It is this condition — dinosaur boneslit- a now-famous Columbian mammoth, the most complete skeleton ofits kind ever dis- Other first-floor exhibits feature “Dino Sores,” cancer and other ailments found in dinosaur bones; as well as an exhibit on the museum's newest finds, the utahraptor and the nodosaurus Upstairs are the youngsters — dinosaur remains from the Cretaceous Period, a mere 65 million to 130 million years ago The second-floor exhibits are intertwined with the coal industry, which has long provided these dinosaur Icflovers — among them fossils of a triceratops-like chasmo saurus and a duckbilled prosaurolophus, as well as dinosaur tracks and fossilized foot prints ranging in length from one inch t several feet. According to Don Burge, the museum's director and curator of paleontology, this marriage of dinosaurs andcoal is uniqueto eastern Utah. “Most other coals in the country are Pennsylvania age, 235 million years ago, and that’s too old. Dinosaurs hadn‘t evolved yet,” Burge said. “But our coal is cretaceous, between 130 (million) and 65 million years old.” Much of the success of CEU's Prehistoric Museum can be credited to this man. For the past 30 years, Burge has been the heart and soul of the dinosaur movement in Price, a man who eats, sleeps and lives dinosaurs. (His wife. Sherril, says if she fails 10 go through the pockets of his jeans, she may later find dinosaur bones in the washing machine.) Burge cameto eastern Utah trom Los Angeles in 1960. At the time, the college in Price was looking for a physics instructor; while Burge was actually a geophysicist by training, “the president of the college didn’t know the difference” and Burge was offered 4 He recalls those early days in Price: resinis u Peal what they had in thei See PRICE on 6C |