Clark Warren who worked for the State Division of Wildlife prior to his retirement and becoming a full time bone digger, has made arrangements for us to visit the Desert Lake Area for our August field trip. We will leave from the CEU Museum on Tuesday, August 11, at 5:30 p.m. p.m. and travel to the Desert Lake Wildlife Management Area, where Harold Weaver, the current director, will take us on a tour and give us information on the history and purpose of the area. We will learn about the ghost towns associated with the area as well as the purpose of the area and the types of wildlife found there.

Clark reports that there are some areas where we may be able to hunt for ammonites there as well if time permits. Harold also hopes to have some fossils there for members of the group to identify for him.

By: Rick Maschek

Two years ago I left LA to drive to a search and rescue conference in Denver. I had planned on stopping at geology and dinosaur places along the way in Arizona and New Mexico and in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah on the way back. I was impressed by the dino tracks outside of Clayton NM, but after leaving Vernal UT for my way back home, still felt unsatisfied. While at Dinosaur National Monument, I saw something about the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry and so planned on stopping on the way home. WOW. The CEU Prehistoric Museum was fantastic (best I've seen since the Tyrell museum in Canada) and the museum at the quarry site, though small in stature, was equally impressive.

While here, I got to video tape (for my classroom) a dig in progress (site 23) and ended up working with John Bird and crew for a few days. It was an awesome experience that I was to incorporate in my science classroom instruction since.

Last year my wife, Barbara, and I returned to site 23 for some additional excavating again with John and his crew. On the last day after closing up the site, John took us on a "tour" of the lab at CUE for a look at that aspect of paleontology. Again WOW. To become a better digger, this summer we wanted to do some lab work in addition to more excavation. This would also help us work toward completing the new certification requirements. We called John and arranged our schedule to fit the planned digging dates, packed our truck with digging tools, camping gear, reference books, and drove all day and made camp on Cedar Mesa for the night. We met John and his crew the next morning at the CEU museum and promptly left for the Price River 2 site a few miles out of town. John took us up the "good" road and after an hour or two of digging, opened up the site. Many bones were removed the first two days in addition to finding about 50 new ones.

Insect repellent and sun screen came in mighty handy as during certain times of the day the biters came out looking for food (us) and the blazing summer sun beat down merciless (thank God for those thunder clouds). Though John had plenty of loaner tools, the tool kits we brought from home got a good workout. Since Barbara did some jacketing last year, I put down the video camera to do some myself. I had forgotten how much fun it is "icing the cake". To save time and effort each day by eliminating the need to cover/uncover the site, we made our camp nearby. After most of the digging crew left for the day, we would explore the surrounding area and stretch our bones. Later, we might find ourselves back at the site digging, playing cards in our tent, or just lazily watching the sunset. The solar shower we brought worked great to wash away a good day's worth of sweat and dust and reminded us just how good it felt to be clean again. After a dinner of burritos and pudding, we would find ourselves thinking about how different and refreshing it was out there to be alone and away from the noise and lights of the big city.

Upon awakening would come a quick and light breakfast followed by the walk back up the hill to the site to get in some dig time in the coolness of the early morning hours. Later, we would hear the familiar sounds of vehicles approaching on the "good" road and again the site would be filled with the sounds of pleasant conversation, the clanking of tools, and John's direction and instruction. Three days later, after removing the bones that nature had stored for us these past millions of years, we closed up the site for a day of rest before beginning our lab experience.

Because the lab is in town, we decided that logistically it would be better to stay at a one of the wonderful (inexpensive) motels in Price (nice soft bed doesn't hurt either). John already had the bones in mind that we were to work on. My project was to be a three foot long rib and Barbara's was a possible anklyosaur tail club that we had excavated in the days before. I was apprehensive about the rib as one flattened end appeared to be in a million pieces while the rest was in a few large chunks. Carefully removing the remaining matrix off the fossils is definitely easier in the lab with the proper tools and a comfortable working environment.

Most of my work was scrubbing clean in water the bone fragments and reconstructing them using a liquid adhesive (paleobond) for the small pieces and Bondo for the large sections. Barbara's possible club began to look more like a skull as matrix was removed and the fragments glued back during the reconstruction. She learned how to use the air chisel from Brian McClelland which made the removal of the hard matrix faster and easier. It become Barbara's favorite tool in the lab.

In the two days we had allotted for time in the lab before returning home, Barbara was able to prepare two other bones and I was able to get most of my rib together. Working in the lab was a great experience and will definitely help us become better diggers out in the field by knowing what will later be required in the lab.

At the last minute, we decided to join the UFOP July field trip to an invertebrate fossil site outside of Castledale since we would be driving past there on our way back to California. Since we thought we were done digging after closing PR-2, we had packed our digging tools away under our camping gear, but John Bird came through for us again with a spare hammer to use. Our group had the opportunity to collect a variety of fossils including ammonites, pelecypods and scaphites. The site was very productive and I think everyone that made the journey was rewarded with finding some fossils. With the sun sinking into the sky, Barbara and I left some desert travel hints with our new friends and set off for home. We have lots of stories to tell our students and look forward to coming back next year to continue our work.

Rick Maschek & Barbara Bailey

PS we are married, Barbara uses her maiden name but goes by either

Bailey or Maschek

Of interest was a short footnote to Rick=s e-mail. While at the site, he had asked why some of the diggers were wearing ankle bands (electrical tape) around the bottoms of their pants. The answer ... to keep the bugs from crawling up your pants and biting. After wearing shorts and picking up a few bites, he thought this was helpful information to pass along to others.

Consider yourself warned.

Don't Wait Until Next Year to Dig.

During the period of July 20 - 23, several members of UFOP (Don Burge, Duane and Joan Taylor, Bob and Margene Hackney, Susan and Julie Briggs, Marvin and Jeanette Evans, Brian McClelland, Bob and Peggy Peyton and Melenie Temples) took part in a joint Paleontology / Archaeology project in the Horn Mountain / Joe=s Valley area.

The archaeology project was led by Stan McDonald and Barbara Blackshear from the US Forest Service. They presented the Manti LaSal National Forest=s new ASite Steward@ plan, whereby volunteers would monitor sensitive archaeo sites and would compile a record of impacts on the site, both natural and human. Seven of our UFOP members took part in the site steward training on Monday and Wednesday and have agreed to become the areas first site stewards. They also visited two very impressive habitation sites in the area.

The paleontology project was led by Don Burge, CEU Museum Director, who was assisted by US Forest Service supervisor Bob Randolph and US Forest Ranger Jeff DeFreest. The project was to locate seven dinosaur sites excavated in the mid 1930's by Charles Gillmore; one of which yielded an AAlamosaurus@ limb bone, and numerous caudal vertebrae's. The animal would have weighed 30 - 35 tons and would have been over 100 feet long. Other sites yielded ceratopsian material, lizards, egg shells, and several types of mammals. These sites are in the North Horn Formation which contains the iridium layer that divides the cretaceous and tertiary periods. This layer was created from the great cloud caused by the impact of the huge meteor that impacted the earth 65 mya and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Even though we burned a lot of shoe leather hiking to the sites, everyone enjoyed the challenge of locating them. Aided by Gillmore=s original reports and photos, all seven sites were located. The exact coordinates were recorded using a GPS, insuring they would not be lost again.

In the spirit of a cooperative project, at one site, a Abiface@ flaked tool was found. Some of our members were of the opinion that this was proof positive that AAlley Oop@ really existed.

For those of you who have not been to the Joe=s Valley area, you must go. There is a beautiful reservoir (Stan MacDonald caught a trout while trolling in his canoe), a nice campground, cool weather and lots of trees. It rained every day in the afternoon. On Thursday and Friday it rained hard!! Bringing mud logs and boulders down onto the highway closing it for periods of time. Some of us had to walk out in front of our vehicles, pushing large rocks off the road in order to pass.

Footprints up to 3 feet long were found in the area, which includes prints of several dinosaur species, making it one of the rarest finds in the world.

The site covers an area of 269,100 square feet, Meyer said. He called on authorities to protect the site.

The area is situated in a limestone quarry with the prints embedded in the mountain side, at inclines of up to 70 degrees. The prints are whole and look like the dinosaurs might have been walking in a mud lake.

Meyer warned that the prints could disappear altogether within 20 years because of rain and wind if efforts are not made to protect them. Limestone mining nearby makes the area even more precarious.

The site is 435 miles southeast of La Paz at an altitude of 9,186 feet. The large size of the area has meant several different species have been identified including tyrannosaurus, and other giant dinosaurs up to 82 feet high.

Each month we send a copy of our local newsletter to the other chapters throughout the state. We hope you chapter presidents will share our newsletter with your members and let them know that they are always welcome to join us on our field trips or digs.

If members from other areas would like to join with us, let us know how we can help. We would be happy to send lists of motels, eating places, campgrounds, etc to you so that your visit might be a good one.