Great Western Adventure Part 7

[Jeffrey P]

On 9/5/2024 at 10:27 PM, Jaybot said:

Looks like you had a blast!!!  Thank you so much for sharing, I bet you are having a lot of fun prepping that white river stuff.

 

The Tate museum is pretty good for its size.  Of course, I don't know a whole lot about dinosaurs, as I spend a lot of time hunting for megafauna- so the Colo mammoth is my favorite display there .  To my knowledge, it's the second largest on display, with the first being the Columbian mammoth at the Nebraska Cornhusker's museum.   Another great specimen at the tate that I noticed you didn't have a pic of is their soft shelled turtle found nearby Casper.  What a find!  

 

Side note, I don't envy your drive back from WY to NY... yikes

Thanks. The Tate is definitely worth a stop for any rock and or fossil hunter passing through that area. Was the soft-shelled turtle the one with two turtles together because I did get a photo of that? The mammoth of course was cool. Pterosaur footprints was a definite highlight and all those icthyosaurs caught me by surprise. Didn't know they were in Wyoming. By the way, the ride back wasn't hard, except for driving through Chicago (all that snarled traffic). Lovely city, though. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 9/5/2024 at 7:26 PM, AK hiker said:

I enjoyed your post, THANK YOU! Particularly the ammonites my favorite fossils.

Thank you and I too am especially fond of ammonites. My area used to produce a lot of really nice ones, but almost all of those sites have been destroyed by development and what's left are just occasional broken pieces of specimens you have to really hunt for. So, to hunt for good ammonites I have to travel far. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 9/13/2024 at 11:21 AM, jpc said:

Great report, Jeff.  Twas fun collecting with you guys.  And nice to read about the rest of your trip, even though Big Cedar Ridge was a bust.  I love the brownies and ice cream story.  Lusk is like that.  Jeff did report that he found fish parts in the White River... along with the alligator skull I found, this is incredibly rare.  The place where he collected fish parts is at the same layer as the alligator skull about 30 feet away.  I think it may have been an alligator hole back in the late Eocene/ early Oligocene.  The small area was also full of broken mammal bones and as Jeff mentioned at least one nice lizard jaw.        

 

PS... we (Tate Museum) claim that our mammoth is indeed bigger than the one in Lincoln.   Lincoln has a femur that is bigger than ours, but it is an isolated bone.       

Thanks and thanks jpc. As I said, your help and company were extremely appreciated and helped make this an exciting and worthwhile adventure. Good luck prepping that gator and the deer jaw, etc. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 9/14/2024 at 3:56 PM, Darktooth said:

Hi Jeff, I have finally had some time to relax and look at this trip report. I must say that I am envious that you are able to go on such great trips and travel as you do. Add to that the diverse fossils, dig sites and great hunting companions makes quite a compelling report. And I just realized that I only read part 7!

Thanks Dave. Most of my collecting is still local and you and Tim are a major part of that. You'll have to read parts 1-6. 

[ClearLake]

Jeff, great trip and great report!  Well done.  Some of the Iowa stops with Mike look familiar to me as he took us around to several places a few summers back.  That is a lot of fun hunting in that area and you are correct, meeting up with fellow fossil types can be the best part.  The further west portion of your trip looks awesome as well and is something I'd love to do sometime.  I've spent some time out there over the years, but haven't done as much fossil collecting as I should.  The scenery is just fantastic on its own.  Looks like a fantastic trip for you!