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

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

(Forwarded from Vrtpaleo - hopefully plain text version)
_____
 
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