New quarry exhibit hall and visitor center approved
This article appeared in the Vernal Express on November 11, 2009 by Kevin Ashby, Vernal Express Publisher. Copyright ©Vernal Express
Work is moving forward toward the construction phase of a new visitor center as well as a new on site quarry facility letting interested people to get in close to dinosaur bones millions of years old.
Dinosaur National Monument was well known for its quarry building that encompassed a hill side full of dinosaur bones and a program that showed how the bone excavation process proceeds. Thousands upon thousands of visitors came to the monument each year to see this process first hand.
“And we are excited to announce the plans for two new buildings to be constructed starting next year,” explained Mary Risser, Dinosaur National Monument Superintendent.
The $13 million construction project for the two buildings is part of the federal government’s stimulus package and according to Risser the money is in place. They are just waiting for the plans and construction schedules to be finalized before notice of bids can be sent out.
Risser explained that the Monument was created on 80 acres in 1950 and was later increased to 210,000 acres in the 1960s to include much more than a wall of dinosaur bones to encompass world renown paleontological resources.
Two rivers traverse the 210,000 acre-plus monument and create dramatic canyons, which draw river runners by the thousands. Deer, elk, and bighorn sheep are a few of the animals found year-round.
The monument is the site of several historic homesteading sites, some still inhabited today while others provide a glimpse into life as a pioneer in the West.
The monument boasts an abundance of archaeological sites where visitors can easily see petroglyphs. The geologic record is impressive, describing 23 rock layers, and is the most complete of any National Park Service site in the United States.
Low light pollution allows for excellent night sky viewing and dramatic drives provide easy access to the beauty of Dinosaur National Monument.
Riser stated that the visitor center exhibits will serve as an orientation to the monument and should stimulate an interest in exploring the area within the monument.
“The new visitor’s center will encourage visitors to spend more time in the monument and local communities,” emphasized Risser. “Because visitors will explore other sites if aware of them, the exhibits will tell visitors about the other important resources of the park.”
Risser stated that the new exhibits will focus in on the varied highlights of the park to inspire self-discovery and setting the stage for the visit to the exhibit hall and wall of dinosaur fossils.
Monument officials closed the quarry building in 2006 after engineers found the existing building to be structural unsafe. Risser also explained that the facility was constructed without plans for meeting ADA requirements.
Risser explained that the expansive soils wreaked havoc on the building from the beginning and over the years the cracks in the walls and floor of the building expanded to a point of closure. At one point windows actually fell out of their panes and came crashing to floor. It was clear that something had to be done.
In one week the quarry building was closed and some exhibits were moved to the outdoor open pavilion area at the visitors center. Kids activities as well as shuttle services also originated from here.
Risser stated that as planning started on a new facility, they voted to keep the design and feel of the old building in the conception of the new. Only this time, the building structure will take into consideration the changing of the expansive clay soil in the area.
The new buildings will rest on 80 foot deep piers. It will also feature a ramp going up to the second floor the same as the previous building to highlight the wall of bones.
Risser stated that she hoped that bids would be let out in November with a December closing, a February awarding and construction starting in March or April. She is expecting an 18 month construction time line.
And during the 18 month construction period, park information brochures, maps and educational materials sold by Intermountain Natural History Association located next to the present temporary visitors center will be moved to the old Dinosaur Quarry Gift Shop, located just before the entrance to the Park.
This property was recently donated to the Association by James Wyant with the building and inventory that was valued at $300,000.
Association Director Richard Millett stated that plans are going forward to use this building as the new temporary visitor center during the construction period starting in the spring.
Millett pointed out that the current visitor center will remain open during the winter months every day except for major holidays from 8:30 to 4:30. |
Rare Skull Sheds New Light on World of Sauropod Dinosaurs
By Dr. Dan Chure, Research Scientist, Dinosaur National Monument
Sauropod dinosaurs, those immense quadrupedal, long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating beasts known popularly as brontosaurs, are by far the largest animals to have ever walked the earth. Sauropods were immensely successful animals and are one of the longest-lived dinosaur lineages, lasting some 160 million years. Sauropods spread across the world, with their fossils known from all continents except Antarctica.
However, in spite of their popularity with the public and the great scientific interest in sauropods, much remains to be discovered about these huge creatures. One of the major scientific mysteries about sauropods has to do with their skulls. For reasons not well understood, sauropods skulls were often lost soon after death and are rarely found. Of the some 200 species of sauropods which have been named by scientists, less than a dozen have skulls known for them. Many of the sauropod skulls that have been discovered come from the rocks of the Jurassic Period, the middle of the three periods making up the Mesozoic or Age of Reptiles. From the Cretaceous Period, the last of the three periods of the Mesozoic, only four sauropod skulls are known from anywhere in the world. Thus it was an exciting event when one of these rare jewels was found in Dinosaur National Monument two years ago.
The amazingly well preserved skull was found not far from the famous Dinosaur Quarry which is enclosed within the Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument. Currently under study by NPS Research Scientist Dr. Dan Chure, it is the only sauropod skull known from the last 80 million years of the Mesozoic in North America! The skull probably belongs to a species new to science, provides much new data on evolution in sauropod dinosaurs, and is of great interest to scientists around the world.
The site where the skull came from was discovered in 1977, but extensive excavations, done by NPS staff, began only a three years ago. The quarry contains a second, less well preserved, sauropod skull as well as many disarticulated sauropod bones from the backbone and limbs. All these fossils were originally buried in the sediments of a riverbed which has turned into a hard sandstone. Excavation of the bones by paleontology staff members Scott Madsen and Ann Elder, as well as volunteers, is difficult and has required power tools such as rock saws and pneumatic drills, and transporting them back to the laboratory often requires helicopters.
While the hard sandstone has preserved the fossils well, it also makes removing them from the rock a difficult task. Back in the lab at the Quarry Visitor Center, preparation by Park Geologist Scott Madsen has taken several years on some specimens, with much additional work remaining. Nevertheless, the skull at least is out of the rock and‹like all fossils collected here‹will remain in the museum at Dinosaur National Monument, only a few hundred yards from where it was discovered.
The excavations at the quarry will continue for probably another ten years. There is no way to predict what other wonders will be found during these excavations, but it has already produced one of the most sought after kinds of dinosaur fossils ‹ a skull of one of the largest land animals in the history of life.
In addition to this spectacular skull, the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument encloses a large quarry containing some 1500 dinosaur bones uncovered but left in-place, just as they were discovered. These bones are from the Jurassic Period, some 20 million years older than the new sauropod skull, but most of them also belong to sauropods, showing that Dinosaur National Monument is indeed a place where giants once walked. |
