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Show Fossils Found East of Henrieville and Southwest of Escalante, in the upper drainage of the Wha-weep Creek, or about five miles north of the Head Quarter's Spring is a region, did the public know about it, that could be one of the major attractions of Garfield County. Life in our county in the long past was like the living forms which today inhabit the swamplands of therain forests In tCentral America Not a great deal of effort is required for one to visit and photograph this ancient clan which once lived in our county. This life of so long ago is Interesting imagine sea turtles in our own back yard larger than any found in the oceans today. Truly these monsters were native to our region, and they did live in the ocean, even though they are now one mile high and some 600 miles from salt water. Anyone any day, except when there is snow on the ground, and really we have had enough of the stuff for a while, can go out to the Upper Wahweep and see the past residents of Garfield County. There are three gentlemen who know a great deal about these remains Barton Smith, Bill Barker and Kenneth Goul-dlng. One time Bill (This is Bill Barker who lives at Henrie ville) was camping out with .some, more, people on the Upper Wahweep. Dinosaurs, and there are plenty of their remains on the upper Wahweep, laid eggs like chickens do. These eggs are worth, because they are sixty million years old, at least several thousand dollars each. Bill thought it worth a try to find some of these high price eggs. Near the end of tho day the whole party thought Bill had hit the "Jackpot" a whole round dozen of them, a full nest, so to speak. But further investigation proved Bill had found a nest of baby turtles, petrified of course, but their shells had all the appearance of egg shells. Bill should not feel any embarrassment about this. Not every day does one find a batch of baby turtles sixty million years old. The dinosaurs on the Upper Wahweep were a diversified family; some of them flew through the air with a wing spread of 20 feet, while some of them crawled across the ground, weighed down with heavy horns from mouth to tail a distance of 30 feet. And then there were cousins, oh the Wahweep who lived most of the time in the water. These swimming reptiles had necks 15 feet long, their teeth were shaped like bear claws, hard and black, and if you look you can find them in the Upper Wahweep. |