Caty and I decided to make some stops on the way home from Grand Teton, so we took the southwest route straight out of Jackson (and, congratulations to us, driving through to leave was the ONLY time we went into Jackson!). Our first planned destination was Fossil Butte National Monument.
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| I haven't been there in years |
On the way, we drove under the biggest antler arch in the world in Afton, Wyoming.
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| How many times do you see this? |
It’s a very pretty drive through Bridger-Teton National Forest with great river views, very little traffic and lots of raptors. We stopped to see two juvenile Bald Eagles that were just standing in a field.
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| Standing in a field |
I think that recently fledged raptors tend to stand longer than adults when you get near them. We’ve seen this behavior in several different kinds of birds. But, they did take off when we stopped to take a look.
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| Taking off |
Our first planned destination was Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer, Wyoming (in others words, not really near anything). It’s a rather small NPS site with a beautiful Visitor Center that replaced the trailer that was there the first time I visited in the 90s.
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| A new Visitor Center |
Fossil Butte National Monument preserves a remarkable collection of primarily aquatic fossils from the Cenozoic period. It is the best collection in North America -- and possibly the world. The fossils are from an ancient lake bed that was the smallest of three subtropical freshwater lakes in what is now Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
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| Ancient turtle |
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| Nice displays |
When the fossils were discovered as coal mines for the railroad were dug from about 1897 to 1937, miners sold them to collectors. Fortunately, national monument designation has put an end to that.
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| Actual fish skin |
The fossils in the Visitors Center are amazing. I would love to be able to decorate a house with them. There are three types — actual remains such as bones or fish scales (those are actual scales above), impressions and calcified remains (sort of like petrified wood). Plus, there are a number of fossils of footprints, fish and reptile trails and plants. My favorite is a large gator (OK, crocodile) named the Wilsoni, probably in honor of my favorite gator fans, Donna and Rick Wilson.
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| A Gator (OK, croc) named Wilsoni (nod to my favorite gator fans, Donna and Rick Wilson |
As we were looking at the fossils, a couple came in, asking where they could go to dig up fossils. The ranger very nicely explained that no one can move anything from a national park (this applies in all parks) and that digging was not allowed. He then said there were some shops nearby that sold legal fossils that were not from NPS land. The couple was not satisfied with that. He then said there were some commercial operations that would let them dig for a fee. They left very disgruntled. I think I would have put a ranger tail on them to make sure they didn’t go out digging anyway.
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| National Parks stop pillaging and preserve wonders so we can see them |
In the summertime, paleontologists work at Fossil Butte, cleaning and studying new discoveries. No one was working while we were there, but the work station was visible through a glass window. This place would be a dream come true for a kid fascinated with dinosaurs (and more on that to come when I talk about Dinosaur National Monument).
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| The lab |
One thing I found very interesting, but didn't really photograph, was how they dealt with errors and new discoveries that rendered a Huge mural in the Visitor Center out of date. Apparently, the mural artists incorrectly rendered some of the prehistoric beasts represented and some were thought to be correct, but proven correct by recent discoveries. Instead of leaving incorrect info up OR paying for a new mural, they had a plaque pointing out the errors and explaining the corrections. I think it's a great way to show how science reveals new information and, in some ways, it actually teaches more than just a plain mural.
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| Lots of details |
I can pretty much imagine what happened: the mural went up and the Park Service was inundated with complaints from scientists about errors. Anyone who writes know how this goes. It was an elegant solution.
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| Fossil Butte has an immense number of fossils |
Fossil Butte is small and out of the way, but it's really a gem. It's a pretty setting, it reveals a remarkable history and it underscores how important it is to preserve not only artifacts, but the process by which artifacts are discovered, studied and used to teach us about our world.
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A nice detour |
Trip date: July 30-August 5, 2016
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