Re: More info on the St. George, UT track site

["Andrew Milner" <andrew@hanmansfossils.com>]

Patrick,

Newpaper reports do confuse matters from time to time.  Here is a breakdown
on some events that have taken place since the discovery of the site in late
February, 2000 by the original land owner Dr. Sheldon Johnson.

Sheldon's step son is a geology professor at Dixie College in St. George,
and he made Sheldon aware of the potential of finding dinosaur tracks on his
property in the Moenave Formation.  Sure enough he found tracks and it is a
spectacular site!  He wanted people to enjoy the tracks and to learn from
them, so he started the process of donating the collection, not the land.
The land was eventually sold to the City of St. George in 2002 a few months
after the collection was appraised and donated.

Late in 2002 a land owner (Darcy Stewart) directly across the street
(Riverside Drive) from the Johnson Farm site learned of the appraisal value
and decided to excavate and collect tracks on his property to sell
commercially.  He began quarrying down to the same track layer that Sheldon
had found, and sure enough, he found more beautifully preserved tracks.
Volunteers, residents of St. George, and visitors to the tracksite saw what
was happening and informed the newspapers immediately in protest.  This
started slight cooperation between Darcy Stewart and the City employees at
the tracksite (myself and Theresa Walker (tracksite coordinator)) after he
strongly expressed his disapproval of the newpaper articles.  If you are not
aware, the laws in Utah when it comes to paleontological resources allow
landowners to keep, destroy, ignore, donate, sell, etc whatever is found on
their land no matter how significant it is to science.  The government
cannot come in a stop things, collect the fossils, etc. without permission
from the landowner.  Utah is not like California in this respect.

We (Theresa, some tracksite volunteers, and myself) began collecting data
and specimens we could salvage by hand from the Stewart site with little
cooperation.  We talked to the excavation guys and Darcy Stewart about other
options such as tax right-offs for donating the collection.  We also talked
to him about the difficulty in preparation to make the blocks salable
commercially (they are not easy prep jobs!).  As blocks were excavated, they
were loaded on trucks and transported to Hildale, Utah and placed in a
compound for a construction company.  Darcy finally decided to donate the
collection and a half acre of land after the discovery of large potholes
that look suspiciously like sauropod tracks!  These potential sauropod
tracks are still controversial, so we are not committing to that one yet.
Anyway, the best specimens were eventually transported back to the St.
George Tracksite from Hildale.  Darcy and his group made a complete turn
around when they realized how important the fossils were that had found.
Development on Darcy Stewart's additional property continues today, and they
are cooperating 100%.  They don't even dig into a new layer or area without
check with me first.  It's fantastic how things have changed!  We're all
getting along great now.  An additional large collection of tracks and plant
fossils is being prepared for appraisal and donation to the City of St.
George from Darcy's property.

We have also had full cooperation form the Washington County School District
during the excavation of the now Fossil Ridge Intermediate School site.
This are led to the discovery of an incredible collection of dinosaur
swimtracks, and abundance of complete fish, new species of freshwater
hybodont shark, a large and new coelacanth fish, and a total of 15 theropod
teeth and two vertebra.  All material recovered from the school property has
and continues to be donated.  The bonebed where many of the fish and
dinosaur remains has been protected by the school district for ongoing
excavation by us.  We are collecting hundreds of specimens from this site
and will continue to do so indefinitely.

A museum plan was finally set in place early in 2003.  We requested to
excavate track layers on the Jonson Farm site where the squatting Eubrontes
trace was recently discovered.  The City (i.e. the land owners of the museum
site and 1/2 acre of former Stewart property across the street) is taking my
advice, as well as some opinions expressed by Jim Kirkland (one of the lead
researchers on the project), most of the time.  We wanted to excavate down
to the several track layers so we can document as much as possible.  We've
got a lot done, however the City was and still is concerned with rising
costs of steel for the museum so that is why we were being rushed.  They
want to get this building underway as quickly as possible, and they do
understand how important it is to preserve rare specimens at the site like
the squatting Eubrontes trace.  We are trying our very best to see that
scientifically significant fossils at the St. George Tracksite are
protected.  Honestly, I don't blame the City of St. George for their
concerns.  They are new in the dinosaur business and will no doubt adapt
appropriately with time.  It really is a new, complicated, and costly
endeavor for the City and we do need further financial support from outside
St. George, to see this project to completion.

By the way, Theresa and myself are currently only part time employees
working full time.  We'll get it done as will the City of St. George.
Remember that the site was only discovered in Feb. 2000 so we are really
moving ahead with the museum becoming a reality at breakneck speed.

If you have further questions, comments, etc on this project then please do
not hesitate to contact us!  In case anyone has forgotten, we are also
hosting an Triassic-Jurassic symposium in March, 2005.  A 200 page, full
color book on the site will be available at the symposium.  It is being
published by the Utah Geological Survey.  Here is the link for more info on
the symposium:

http://www.utahpaleo.org/meeting2005.html

Here is a link for more details on the site (see page 4 of UGS Notes PDF):

http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/snt34-3.pdf

Sorry if the explanation is too long, but just wanted to keep

Regards,
Andrew

Andrew R. C. Milner
City Paleontologist
St. George Dinosaur Tracksite at Johnson Farm, St. George, Utah
Home Phone: (435) 477-9467
andrew@hanmansfossils.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "PATRICK JOHNSON" <mrpatjohnson@msn.com>
To: "dinosaur" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 5:26 AM
Subject: Re: More info on the St. George, UT track site


I'm really confused by the different reports about this situation.

One version seems to blame land owners who have nothing to do with the
museum.  It accuses them of trying to commercially develop the land in spite
of the newly found track site. In fact, I had the impression that these land
owners might well be putting the implementation of their plans in high speed
to avert the threat of a major stall and possible deceasement as the result
of the discovery. (Once the track sight has been annihilliated, its gone for
good.)

Now another version blames it all on the construction of a dinosaur museum.
(And I seem to recall that in the first version the supporters of this
museum were totally opposed to any destruction of the track site.)

What are the facts here...just the plain and simple facts?

Patrick Johnson
mrpatjohnson@aol.com

----- Original Message -----
From: MKIRKALDY@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 7:42 PM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: More info on the St. George, UT track site

I don't think that anyone has posted about this article on the St. George
dinosaur tracksite:

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04072004/utah/154865.asp

"St. George looks to preserve traces of squatting dinosaur"
By Greg Lavine
The Salt Lake Tribune

"The recently unearthed traces of a dinosaur that squatted in southern Utah
200 million years ago may have earned a new lease on life."

"St. George city officials hope to save the rare sandstone impressions,
which
until recently were set to be sacrificed so that a dinosaur museum could be
built nearby. Construction vehicles rumbling through the site probably would
have destroyed the fragile Jurassic period discovery." <SNIP>

Mary