We also found dozens of fossilized fish–more than we could possibly carry home. In the dusty hours that followed, we found lots more fish poop. We all gasped with delight when my daughter found a promising brown squiggle on her very first try. The trick, he told us, is to split the stones as wafer-thin as possible. Since the quarry charges by the hour, the manager George lost no time outfitting us with chisels and hammers and giving us a quick lesson on how to split the pale yellow limestone slabs. For about 4,000 years the water’s unusual chemistry caused dead fish to sink instead of float. Southwest Wyoming is a semi-arid desert now, but 50 million years ago it was a lush freshwater lake. Frankly I was a little surprised we found it at all. We passed four cattle guards and a solitary gravestone before arriving at what was essentially a big hole in the ground. To get to the quarry, we flew into Salt Lake City, drove north three hours across an increasingly barren landscape, and bumped eight miles up a dirt road. What kid isn’t? Which is why I took my own children digging for fossils at the Warfeild Fossil Quarries in Wyoming last summer. Jamie Pearson has the scoop on some of the best dig sites for kids.Īs a kid, I was obsessed with fossils. The first annual National Fossil Day will be celebrated tomorrow, October 13, by the National Park Service and at fossil sites throughout the country.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |