1900
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Jurassic Expedition to Colorado and Wyoming.
Reports of dinosaur remains in SW Colorado had
come to the department at various times. Consequently Mr. Granger and Mr. Thomson left the museum
on June 7th and proceeded to Mancos, CO. From there they went to Cortez where they got outfitted by
Mr. S. P. Thomas, who also acted as a guide for the party. 2 outcrops of dinosaurs had previously
been seen by members of the department at Montezuma canyon and Mc Elmo canyon. The bones in
Mc Elmo canyon were on Mr. Edmunson's Ranch, a few miles from the mouth of the canyon. These
consisted of a large humerus, 2 lower limb bones, some cervical vertebrae and part of a femur, probably
from 2 individuals. They were embedded in an exceedingly hard conglomerate with the ends of the
bones badly eroded. Two days of careful prospecting failed to find more than scattered weathered
fragments at intervals along the bluff. An attempt was made to examine the Montezuma Canyon, but
owing to the scarcity of feed, lack of water and heat, the party was obliged to turn back after the first day.
They attempted to prospect in the surrounding areas, but lack of feed, water and extremely hot weather
made them abandon the search for the time. Mr. Granger and Thomson headed north to Medicine Bow.
At Bone Cabin Quarry work was resumed about June 10th under the direction of Mr. Kaisen, who
remained in charge of the camp until the closing of the quarry Sept. 1st. He was assisted by Dr. F. B.
Loomis of Amherst College, a volunteer from June 23rd to Sept. 13th. Mr. Paul Miller was employed as
cook from June 10th to October 1st. Mr. Granger and Mr. Thomson arrived July 5th and lent assistance
whenever they were in camp. During the season 3 strippings were uncovered. A small section was
barren, but for the most part the bones occurred in fair abundance and in better quality than former
seasons. With very few exceptions all inferior bones were discarded, these were about one third of the
total number. None of the soft, blue clay in which the collection of 1898 was encountered was found,
the bones occurring in a sandstone of various hardness. A noticeable feature of the 3rd collection from
Bone Cabin Quarry was the absence of any complete feet and the presence of considerable skull
material and parts of small dinosaurs of the Hallopus type. There is still a small area of the quarry not
worked. Mr. Thomson found about Aug. 10th, a very promising prospect in the Como Bluff near the old
station of Aurora. After the closing of Bone Cabin Quarry the efforts of the entire party were
concentrated upon this specimen, a Diplocaulus, consisted of 7 cervical and 9 dorsal vertebrae and
various ribs. On Oct. 1st Mr. Thomson left Aurora to join the Black Hills expedition at Sturgis, S. D.
taken with him one team and complete camp outfit. Oct. 10th a freight car was loaded and billed to New
York. Mr. Granger left by rail for Sturgis the same day. Mr. Kaisen after breaking camp and placing the
outfit for winter left for the museum. Texas Expedition of 1900. J. W. Gidley and Mr. Hans W. Zinsser,
left New York July 3rd. After some side trips, the party, Gidley, Zinsser and William Kendall, cook, left
Clarendon on July 26th and arrived at Mount Blanco on August 2nd. The fossil beds seemed to be very
limited in area and at first did not seem rich in fossils. However, a skull and partial skeleton of a primitive
mastodon was found. Other jaws of elephants, bones of camels, horses and a shell of a large turtle was
found at this area. The work at this locality occupied one month. The party then went to the locality at
the head of Rock Creek, Brisco Co., which lies nearly 70 miles south of Mt. Blanco. The horses
collected from this locality in the year before were all young animals and it was very desirable to obtain a
skull with an adult dentition. A plow and scrapper were obtained from a rancher and the sandy matrix was
stripped from the bone layer. A fully adult skull and partial skeleton was found, as well skeletons of other
younger individuals. Mr. Zinsser was obliged to return to New York. As soon as work was finished we
broke camp. Expedition to Patagonia, 1898-1900. Barnum Brown in company with Mr. J. B. Hatcher and
Mr. O. A. Peterson, sailed from New York on December 7th 1898. They landed at Punta Arentas on the
8th day of January, 1899, where they spent 6 days in getting together their outfit. Mr. Brown and Mr.
Peterson went overland to Gallegos. From Gallegos we traveled north to the coast crossing Rio Cruz
at Pescadores then north to Rio Chico, then on to Lake Puerrydon, our destination on March 3rd. Mr.
Hatcher had found fossil numerous the Santa Cruz deposits the year before. Mr. Peterson and I found
only 4 fragmentary skeletons of typotheres. We spent 2 weeks here then a heavy snow storm force us
to leave. Traveling the route that we had come we arrived at Pescadores on April 7th. While waiting
for boats, we found a skull, jaws and vertebrae of a cetacean. At Canon de los Vacos, Mr.'s Hatcher and
Peterson left me and I began my work along the coast, which lasted until the following February. The
principal part of my collection as that of Mr. Hatcher and Mercerat was taken from the barancas along the
Rio Gallegos. Barnum Brown returned June 18th 1900 With 24 boxes of fossil material. Black Hills
Expedition of 1900. G. R. Wieland spent October and November exploring the Jurassic-Cretaceous rim
of the Black Hills. On Oct. 8th he was joined by Albert Thomson at Sturgis, SD and several days later by
Walter Granger . After preliminary prospecting, Mr. Thomson began working on a Morosaurus and Mr.
Granger on a Brontosaurus. Both were located 3 miles S of Sturgis, SD in the Fort Meade Military
Reservation. There is a good chance that part of both specimens remain; owing to unfavorable
weather the work was stopped. Wieland collected a Camptosaurus femur and small saurian vertebra
from a trial excavation, 3 miles N. of Piedmont. He also collected portion of shield of an armored
dinosaur from the "Calico Canyon", near Buffalo Gap, SD. Wieland sited areas that should be further
explored; the most import being the Valley of Belle Fourche. He also report geological and stratrigraphic
data. Barnum Brown collecting in the Ceratops Beds of Converse County, WY. He hired an
assistant, Mr. H. M. Smith, at Edgemont, SD. Leaving Edgemont on July 1st, they followed up the
Cheyenne River to the junction of Alkali Creek. 15 mi. N of the river on Alkali Creek is the house of Mr.
H. C. Crawford, where they camped for 4 days. In the vicinity found a very fragmentary Triceratops
skull. Brown found a spring on the head of Seven Mile Creek, 2 miles S of the middle line of Converse
Co., where he made camp for the entire 7 months. 2 miles N o the Cheyenne River on a branch of
Seven Mile Creek, spec. no. 8 was found, a nearly complete Diclonius, as well a turtle shell and a
Triceratops pubis. In the sandstone around no. 8 were the impressions of many types of leaves. No
12, a carnivorous dinosaur was found � mile N. Other finds were made and excavated and stratigraphic
work was done. The cook's name was Armstrong.
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