John K Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 (edited) Took a long weekend and made the trek down to Kemmerer. Had made reservations at Ulrich’s Fossil Gallery to dig with them them on Monday, so we headed down on Saturday, stopping that afternoon at the Devil's Tower to spend the night. We made it to Kemmerer Sunday afternoon, and since we were digging with them the next day, camped at Ulrich's for the night. I can't begin to describe what wonderful hosts Shirley and Carl Ulrich and their staff were to us - Shirley opened up the old saloon for us when some thunderstorms went through, but we were OK in our tent.We drove up the next morning with "the boys", where they showed us the general techniques used to quarry out the plates containing the fossils.We had a terrific time diggingWe've got a lot of unpacking and prep work to do, but here's a few of our finds.I believe this is a priscacara1/2 diplomystus (I've got the other half wrapped up somewhere...)a couple knightiasand finally, my son and I uncovered this 18" "shadow" as we were digging.I didn't know what it was, but I knew what it was The guides seemed pretty surprised that I recognized it for what it is. We carefully carved out around it enough to be able to get a big (4 feet or so) plate out, that I carefully trimmed down to a manageable size.We got it back to the gallery, where Jordan from Ulrich's terrific staff cut it down to size for us, and then Mike gave me a crash course on how to prep some thing like this out.I spent some time on it today, and managed to expose most of the spinal colum of a 16" mioplosusI'm only spending 1/2 hour at a time at it - I've never prepped something quite like this out before, so I'm forcing myself to take my time! Edited March 7, 2014 by John K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Very nice, thanks for sharing! Were you allowed to keep everything you found? If you believe everything you read, perhaps it's time for you to stop reading... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John K Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 Yes! but we didn't find anything notably rare or unusual. That said, what we did find and keep more than made up for the cost of the fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdevey Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 That place looks like a blast, great hunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 I didn't know you could dig the 18" layer. I figured they harvested that only for the prime specimen market. Congrats on some great finds and I'm interested to see your progress on the Mioplosus and Priscacara. -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John K Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 I didn't know you could dig the 18" layer. I figured they harvested that only for the prime specimen market. Congrats on some great finds and I'm interested to see your progress on the Mioplosus and Priscacara. These were from above, though I think you can pay extra to dig down below. I rode up separately with one of the staff (we wanted to see if the mule deer were around...) and he showed me the 18" layer - pretty cool; you could see shadows everywhere of some pretty sizable fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh-Man Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Looks like a really cool trip! Can't wait to see the prepped specimens. GO SLOW!!! What is geology? "Rocks for Jocks!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Nice finds! Kemmerer is on my list of places to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astron Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Awesome hunting place And those fishes are tremendous Thanks a lot for offering these nice scenes Astrinos P. Damianakis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Wow! Great finds! The fish look so fragile! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now