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Show Page 4 The Gunnison Valley Gazette Thursday, July 5, 2007 Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Mark Henline/Gunnison Valley Gazette Annett Allred and Janell Braithwaite from the Gunnison Business Association, along with Gunnison City Mayor Scott Hermansen join with Megan White from Perfect 10 Nails at a ribbon cutting held Monday to welcome Perfect 10 Nails to Gunnison. Perfect 10 Nails is located at 19 N. Main in Gunnison. They specialize in gel nail enhancements and pedicures, and also offer acrylic nail enhancements, manicures, gel toes and fiberglass. Call 528-3674 for an appointment. The Scouting News! In the summer of 1994, Steven Spielburg released the motion picture Jurassic Park. We went on opening night, stood in line for two hours, and then we were packed so tight in the theater there wasn’t a single seat left open. This dad was sitting in front of us with all these little kids, and during the credits after the show, one of his boys--he couldn’t have been any more than five years old--turned to his dad, and said (loud), “That would have been really cool if there weren’t any dinosaurs!” Jurassic Park brought back a fervor of interest in dinosaurs. I admit to being caught up into it, and it hasn’t ever waned. While I didn’t take my kids to see the movie, (it was scary enough for me), I did bring them to various dinosaur museums, checked out books from the library, and spent a few days studying dinosaurs with them. Ever since, summer time seems like a natural time to make a dinosaur trek. We found a fun, different option to the typical museum. There are various dinosaur quarries around the state where you can go explore an actual digging site and see the bones still in the ground. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry near Price, is one of the world’s foremost resources for fossils. It was discovered in the 1800s by ranchers in the area. According to some theories, a plant eater, like a stegosaurus, stumbled into a swamp, and got bogged down in the mud, and couldn’t get out. It became the unwilling bait for a pack of Allosauruses that hurried in for the kill, and were also sucked down into the mud. Similar scenes happened all along the once marshy area. (You really have to use your imagination to picture the desert there as a swamp. It’s hot and very dry this time of year.) The Cleveland-Lloyd quarry is the most concentrated collection of Jurassic bones on the planet that has yet been discovered. It has so many Allosaurus bones that the Allosaurus has been named the official state fossil. An Allosaurus is a smaller version of the T-rex, and was a fierce predator. The Cleveland-Lloyd quarry is the only known “dinosaur predator trap.” They’ve pulled the bones of over 74 individual dinosaurs out of the quarry, and 66% of them are Allosaurus bones. A total of over 12,000 bones have been excavated since 1928, and there’re still thousands there. The quarry has contributed fossils to over 65 different museums worldwide. On some days when the quarry is open to the public there are actually paleantologists and volunteers digging at the site. There are different sheds that cover the digging sites to protect the bones from the ravages of weather, thieves and vandals. One of the buildings has a catwalk where you can go in for a closer look. The bones are still in the ground, some in a semblance of their living shape, but most are scattered and jumbled. The bones are so thick there that in a measured area of about a yard, in a single layer, there are more Jurassic dinosaur bones than have been discovered anywhere else in the world. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is 33 miles from Price. If you’re going there by way of Price, take Highway 10 to the Cleveland/ Elmo turnoff, and from there, just follow the signs. You’ll feel like you’re going off into the middle of nowhere, especially since the last 12 miles are on a graded, unpaved road. Other dinosaurs that have been found there are the Stegosaur, a Camptosaurus (similar to the Iquanodon) Cerosaurus, Marshosaurus and Stokesosaurus. (Don’t ask me what all of the rest of those are.) Many of them are unique to the quarry, which is probably why no one has ever really heard of them. But it’s pretty cool that they were once living right here in Utah, and their remains are still here for us to see and enjoy. is sponsored by: Shanelle Winn 85 East Center Street, Gunnison 528-7161 Mark Henline/Gunnison Valley Gazette Scouts from the Centerfield 2nd Ward conducted the flag ceremony for the 4th of July in Gunnison. The Scouting News is Sponsored by ACE Paints Sporting Goods Whirpool Appliances 528-7513 435 South Main • Gunnison Introducing as the Newest Member of the Gunnison Valley Hospital Medical Staff Dr. Willden graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine and recently completed the McKay Dee Hospital Family Practice Residency program. Dr. Willden is trained in the broad spectrum of family practice medicine, including obstetrics and pediatrics. Dr. Willden will start seeing patients on July 16th at the new Medical Office Building located at 65 E. 100 N. in Gunnison. Appointments can be made by calling (435) 528-2130. “I wonder what my kitchen would look like green?” Shannon demonstrates the new ACE Paint Computer. 435 South Main • Gunnison 528-7513 |
