Fwd: Update on Situation at the St. George Dinosaur Tracksite at Johnson Farm...

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

(Forwarded from Vrtpaleo)
_____

In a message dated 3/31/2004 2:26:37 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
andrew@hanmansfossils.com writes:

Hi folks,

Just a quick note to send my appreciation for all of your passion and 
enthusiasm in attempting to preserve a truely irreplaceable trace fossil.  I 
had no 
clue this ball of mass emails and phone calls had started rolling since the two 
news reports on Sunday (Today Show and KSL 5 News).  It appears as though 
efforts made by those of you who wrote emails may have sparked new discussions 
today on how to deal with the recently discovered squatting Eubrontes trace.  
Further excavation of trace surfaces outside of the planned museum walls have 
been stopped, however mapping and photographing of track horizons will continue 
this week until further notice.  Here is an update on what took place today:

- Kent Perkins, Gary Sanders, a city surveyor, a city engineer, and myself 
met at noon at the tracksite.  First off, Kent asked if I could try and stop 
the 
emails coming into his office, etc.  I said that I would try my best (on that 
note, please don't send anymore because they get the message - thanks!).  We 
looked at the future positioning of footings for the northwest wall along 
Riverside Drive and determined that one of these 9 foot footing would sit 
smack-dab in the middle of the squatting trace.  
- The City including myself are looking into several opnions which includes 
going in front of the Board of Adjusters once again and moving the planned 
position of the building for a second time.  One move of the future structure 
that 
will definitely occur is shifting the building 6 feet to the north-northeast 
so the squatting Eubrontes trace and continuing trackway with taildrag will 
not be impacted by the footings.  The specimen will either be quarried out in 
several large, stabilized blocks, or an extension off the northwest wall will 
be 
constructed to protect the specimen in situ.  

Unfortunately Riverside Drive is in the way, but we are trying our best to to 
save this one of a kind trace!  Tomorrow we begin a large latex peel of the 
squatting trace and trackway outside of the museum walls ... I should say, 
outside of the walls for now.  Joe Iacuzzo (Jurassic Foundation) helped by 
contacted many people who have really helped out in getting the necessary 
supplies 
together to prepare this latex peel.  As you may already know, two previous 
attempts at making latex peels of the specimen ended up being far too thin due 
to 
lack of supplies (don't bother looking for latex in southwest Utah for quite 
some time ... we purchased all of it!).

Thanks to Triebold Paleontology for generously donating, and arranged for the 
donation of, more than 20 gallons of latex, along with cheesecloth, burlap 
and other materials.  Michelle Jones, from the Las Vegas Natural History 
Museum, 
will be traveling to St. George on Wednesday, the 31st, to work with the 
on-site staff and volunteers in making these very important molds.  Many thanks 
to 
Mike Triebold, Walter Stein, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Sculpture 
Depot, and Ball Consulting for their generous donations.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
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

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