Dinosaur National Monument - Quarry and More

 

Dinosaur National Monument – Quarry and More

Our second day of exploring Dinosaur National Monument consisted of visiting the dinosaur quarry and driving Cub Creek Road.  Join us!

On August 17, 1909, Earl Douglass, a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, PA, discovered an ancient riverbed full of dinosaur bones.  The river flowed in the very area where this exhibit hall stands today.  There was a long drought`` and many of the dinosaurs died near this old riverbed, when they came in search of water.  When they died, and the water receded, their bones piled up at the bottom of the riverbed.  This dinosaur “log jam” is what has been preserved and is on display in the exhibit hall.

Sand buried some bones very close together, while other bones were separated and scattered. There are about 10 different dinosaur bones in this area. These bones have been in this habitat for about 149 million years.  The bones shown in this exhibit are the actual riverbed, but they’ve angled the riverbed up so that it’s easier to view.  Many of the bones on display are disarticulated, meaning they have come apart from each other over the years.  There are only 2 dinosaur skeletons that are fairly complete, but these are not those!

About 15% of the bones shown in the Quarry are those of the stegosaurus.  In the images above, most of the bones of the stegosaurus can be accounted for.  Of course, they are very disorganized and have been scattered a bit.  The stegosaurus was a herbivore from the Late Jurassic era, between 150 – 155 million years ago.  I have also shown an image of a drawing of a stegosaurus so you can get an idea of what it looked like when he was living.  The image below shows a rather long view of the skeleton, so you can get a better idea of how close together the bones are.

The other dinosaur whose skeleton is fairly complete is a Camarasaurus.  In fact, the skeleton here is relatively articulated.  And, there are only 2 skulls in the quarry, and I’ve. highlighted one of them!  I’ve also included an image of what a camarasaurus looked like when they walked the earth.

Here are some other dinosaur bones spread around the quarry, including one that anyone can reach out and touch (the one in the lower left corner).

About a thousand years ago, there was a native people living in this area.  They were the Fremont people and have left petroglyphs along the road after leaving the dinosaur quarry.  I especially liked the image on the left side above.  I think it looks like a vase of flowers!

In the previous blog, I captured images of the original Chew ranch.  Here are a couple of images of the current Chew ranch.  This ranch was originally owned by Aaron Daniels, who started the ranch in late 1880s.  Douglas Chew purchased the ranch in 1941, and still operates it.

This view is of Placer Point.  Placer deposits occurs when valuable minerals flake off and are carried downstream.  They tend to collect where the water flow slows, like in bends in the river.  They are mined by dredging the river bottom in those areas.  Placer mining occurred just downstream from this peaceful scene between 1905 – 1942.  While some valuable minerals were found, including gold, but never enough to make the effort profitable and eventually were stopped.

As we continued on our way, we saw an interesting rock formation – they call this turtle rock, and we can certainly see why!!

Our last stop for today’s exploration is the homestead of Josie Bassett Morris.  Josie established this homestead in the early 1900s.  Information at the homestead state that she moved to this homestead when she was about 40 years old, divorced and her children grown.  She lived here until 1964.  Here are photos of the outside of her cabin and the chicken coop.  There are also images from the inside of her home.  It’s reinforced enough to be safe to explore.  Although the information shown at the homestead doesn’t reflect this, Josie lived quite the unconventional life. She lived for awhile with her sister, Ann, who I mentioned in my previous blog.  Both of them were known for their love affairs with various members of Butch Cassidy’s “wild Bunch” band of outlaws.  Josie was married five times – divorced four times and suspected of killing the fifth husband.  During the Prohibition years, she made and sold bootlegged whiskey, although she was never arrested. What a way to end this exploration!!

Enjoy!