DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT: A Jurassic Treasure Trove

Excavating Apatosaurus vertebrae, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

In 1908, Earl Douglass, a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began to search the cliff faces and mountain ridges of eastern Utah for traces of dinosaurs.  He knew that fossilized bones had been found in similar places nearby in Colorado and Wyoming in a layer of sandstone rock called the Morrison Formation, which is found throughout this region and is a rich source of Jurassic dinosaur fossils.

The Morrison Formation was created between 145 and 135 million years ago.

A year later, on August 17, 1909, Douglass climbed to the top of a rocky ridge where wind and rain had washed away much of the dirt, revealing layers of older rock underneath.  He looked down and saw below him a neatly arranged row of dinosaur tailbones belonging to the huge plant-eating dinosaur called Apatosaurus. This discovery marked the beginning of one of the most spectacular dinosaur finds of the century.  Further digging revealed these bones to be the most complete Apatosaurus skeleton ever discovered.

Stegosaurus model, top; fossil leg and foot bones, below

In addition, the fossil quarry contained thousands of other bones belonging to at least sixty other dinosaurs.  Ten different kinds of dinosaurs have been identified from the fossils found in the quarry including more than half of all the known types of dinosaurs that lived in North America during the late Jurassic period. The bones removed from the quarry by Douglass and his crew were taken to the Carnegie Museum.  Later, other fossils from the quarry went to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. 

Quarry and Visitor Center, Dinosaur National Monument

The dinosaur quarry discovered by Earl Douglass is one of the most valuable sources of dinosaur fossils ever found.  In 1915, the United States government declared the quarry and eighty acres of the surrounding land to be a national monument.  In 1958, a visitor center was constructed at the quarry site.  It is now a museum and a place where visitors can view dinosaur bones and watch paleontologists at work. Nearly 1500 fossil dinosaur bones are visible in the cliff face enclosed by the museum! The park also includes camping and picnic areas and numerous hiking trails.

Hike in Hog Canyon, Dinosaur Nat. Mon.

In the summer of 1987, I visited Dinosaur National Monument to do research for my book Dinosaur Mountain (Clarion Books, 1989) and watched paleontologists scramble across the giant wall inside the museum where hundreds of dinosaur bones are still in the process of being excavated.  I also had a chance to visit an outdoor site and the laboratories where tiny microfossils are examined under microscopes. After I finished my research, my family joined me and we spent a week camping in the park.  While the Dinosaur Museum is the primary attraction, the hikes in the park are spectacular and the campgrounds are pleasant and not crowded.  We discovered petroglyphs on the canyon walls, watched deer and prairie dogs along the roadside, visited a fish hatchery, and watched people rafting down the Green River which flows through the park.  It was an ideal outdoor summer vacation spot with something for everyone.

Planning a Visit:  For more information and planning a visit to Dinosaur National Monument, go to the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm .