1916 Expedition to the Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, by Barnum Brown. The party consisted of Barnum Brown, in charge, A. F. Johnson and part of the season Wm. F. Stein. Brown stopped in Indiana to see some mastodon remains found by Mr. Arthur Fry 2 2/1 mi. SE of Fulton, Fulton Co., IN. The bones were disassociated and scattered over a considerable area and represented several individuals. Brown purchased the lot for $200. He then made a reconnaissance trip through southern Alberta and reached camp on the Red Deer on July 21st. Mr. Johnson, who lives in the area, had been instructed to prospect a small area of exposures on Sand Creek that hadn't been worked in previous years. He began to work on May 10th, locating a camp on the Red Deer River just above Sand Creek. Mr. Stein left Basin, WY on July 21st and reached camp on July 28th. In the middle of Sept. a second camp was established at a C. P. R. ditch-rider's house near the head of Sand Creek. They spent the entire season working this one pocket of badlands. The Red Deer River was higher this year than any time since this country had been settled.. The Sternberg, Ottawa Museum party consisted of 8 men working in the Belly River Fm around and through the AMNH's territory and above Drumheller in the Edmonton Fm. Both groups were fairly successful. Besides a good selection of dinosaurs, 2 large silicified tree trunks and a big slab of fossil leaves were collected. They finished work on the Red Deer and loaded the box car with 65 boxes on Oct. 21st, at which time Stein left for his home in WY. On Oct. 24th Brown and Johnson started from Brooks for the Cretaceous of South Milk River, Blackfoot Reservation in northern Montana, 120 miles distant. They crossed the Bow River at Bow island and the Belly River at Tabor and at Chin Coulee separated. Johnson driving on to Webster's ranch on the Milk River, while Brown rode east 90 miles to a small outcrop of Belly River rocks on Manyberries Creek. In this pocket of badlands Jack McLean had located some bones and one lot turned out to be a skeleton with about 25 feet of vertebral column of a carnivorous dinosaur. It was to late to uncover it, so it was left for another season. Brown then joined Johnson at the Webster's ranch and they collected leaves from the mouth of McDonald Creek in beds of questionable age. Proceeding across the boundary they entered the Blackfoot Reservation and established camp on South Milk River in the big bend 4 miles S of the international boundary line. Here there are bad land exposures chiefly grass covered but in places bare and at least 1000 feet thick of uniform alternating sandstones and shales. The U.S.G.S. determined them to be Judith River age, but stratigraphically and faunistically they are without a doubt Edmonton and exactly like the Edmonton exposures at Sandstone, Alta. They opened one large quarry in shale containing finely preserved bones, mostly small disassociated trachodonts and small ceratopsians and collected several. While prospecting they located a large Saurolophus which could not be fully determined because of the weather. During the last week one snow storm after the other came and the temperature dropped to 4 degrees below zero. They covered specimens and broke camp on Nov. 17th. 1916. 2 skeletons of Pliohippus were purchased, one found by Harold J. Cook and one by E. L. Troxell. Expedition to the Rocky Mountain Eocene, by Walter Granger. Mr. Wm. Stein was given 2 months employment, without assistance, and was instructed to explore parts of Mouth Elk Creek that had not been examined in former years and to reexamine the exposures of Clark Fork and Sand Coulee beds in the southern part of the Clark Fork basin. Mr. Stein left his ranch near Otto on June 29th and went to South Elk Creek where he remained for about 5 weeks, going then to the Clark Fork basin and finally closing his work with the shipment of his collections on Aug. 22nd. The results from the Clark Fork was meager, but these beds were very barren to begin with and had been gone over once or twice. On South Elk Creek returns were far more satisfactory. A large collection of fragmentary mammals were secured. Mr. Stein's one big find was a skeleton of Diatryma, found on South Elk Creek. Mr. Stein returned to this locality in November to make an effort to secure the missing foot and sternum. Considerable stripping was made and the area explored, but the only bones found were a quadrate, an additional vertebra, and part of the axis and other fragments of ribs and vertebrae. The New Mexico-Colorado (Paleocene). Messrs. Granger and Olsen left New York the second week of June and went directly to Farmington, NM. The museum's camping outfit had been stored with Mr. Jack Martin since 1913. Mr. Martin was engaged with his team and wagon. Proceeding up the Animas from Farmington the first camp was made on June 23rd along the railway about a half mile below Aztec. The following day they explored the long draw up which the Aztec-Bloomfield road passes. Torrejonian age mammals were found. Both sides of the Animas Valley was examined but very little more was found. On June 30th the camp was moved to Mr. J. W. Adair's ranch, 4 mi. above Aztec on the W side of the river. On the W side of the valley there are great exposures of badlands, along the sides of 3 canyons putting in from the west. Their local names are Bohannan, Tucker and Kiffin Canyons. Each of these canyons yields Torrejon mammals, but with the exception of one small pocket on the S side of Bohannan Canyon, about 2 miles above the mouth, fossils were found very sparingly. Bohannan is the southern most canyon and empties into the Animas at the Adair ranch. July 13th the 3rd and last camp in the Animas Valley was on the ranch of Mr. J. D. Gay, 2 mi. below Cedar Hill Station on the west side of the river. They examined Leper Canyon and a short canyon emptying below the ranch. These were unusually barren. A fair skull of Pantolambda was found in a large wash just below Cedar Hill. From Cedar Hill the party went to a locality given by Mr. Gidley. This is 7 mi. to the S from Ignacio P. O. Camp was established on the ranch of Mr. Peter Scott. There large deposits in this area but very few fossils. A fortunate discovery of a microfauna was found in a lens of gray shale. The site is in a small, low-lying pocket of badlands, on Section 20, about a mile E of Scott's Ranch. A second working camp in this unnamed formation was made on the ranch of W. B. Chockley on the Piedras River about 2 mi. above Arboles. The party then returned to Farmington. It was decided before leaving the San Juan area for good to took over badlands at the head of Coots Canyon, near Angle Peak, and to revisit the Chico Springs exposures. The outfit proceeded up Horn Canyon, crossed the divide at the head and made camp at a spring near the edge of Coots Canyon. The head of Coots Canyon spreads out, fan-shaped, into an enormous rincon of bad lands, Angel Peak rising from the eastern edge of the basin. It is the largest and roughest area of Paleocene bad land exposures in the San Juan basin. Prospecting was carried on for about a week. The formation was found to be Torrejon and the fossils, although not rare, were, for the most part, extremely poorly preserved. It did not seem worth while to spend enough time to make a complete and thorough survey. The visit to Chico Springs, where 2 days were spent, did not result in finding any additional pockets. After finishing Chico Springs the party returned to Farmington, where Mr. Martin was released and the camp equipment forwarded to Walsenburg, CO. Granger left on Sept, 13th and Mr. Olsen a day later. From Walsenburg Granger staged out to Gardner, and hired Mr. George J. Ingraham as cook and teamster with his outfit. The first camp was made on Sept. 20th at the Meyer's ranch on Muddy Creek. This is about 11 or 12 miles NW of Gardner. A week or so later camp was moved to the mouth of Greaser Creek on Muddy Creek, about 2 mi. above Gardner. Mr. Granger left this camp for the east on Oct. 12th. Mr. Olsen remained to complete some excavating and do some preliminary prospecting for the next season. The work was closed on Oct. 27th and the museum's outfit stored with Mr. Ingraham. The most important locality was the Huerfano-Muddy Creek divide, a mile or 2 or 3 mi. W of Gardner. Expedition of 1916 to the Pliocene of Western Nebraska, by Albert Thomson. Mr. A. C. Whitford of the Univ. of Nebraska, assisted by Mr. George Stoll, was employed by AMNH to do field work. Beginning April 1st in the vicinity of Alliance, NE, they worked the country to the west and north of Alliance with very little result. About May 30th Thomson joined them, then located about 40 mi. NE of Alliance near Box Butte Creek. 2 weeks later Dr. Matthew joined the party. A week later Dr. Matthew and Thomson went down onto the Middle Loup River to explore an area that Dr. F. V. Hayden had found Pliocene fossils in 1857. They had no success, so returned to Alliance. Whitford and Stoll were instructed to go to east to Snake River in Cherry Co. and explore that region. Dr. Matthew and Thomson went S to search along the North Platte River and its tributaries, making their first stop at Bridgeport then E to Oshkosh. There they explored the Blue River where they found a few fragments of rhinoceros and elephant, but not enough to justify sending a party. Their next point was Hershey were they explored the Birdwood Creek country. They found one small exposure with horse and camel bones. They went to North Platte City and looked into some canyons SE of the town, but like all the others they were covered with grass and barren of fossils. They then went to Valentine, NE and joined Whitford and Stoll, who had also had no success. They journeyed east to Springview, NE, where they prospected for a week, but discovered nothing but a few scraps. Dr. Matthew and Whitford then went S to the Niobrara River, while Stoll and Thomson prospected N and westward. Neither party met with any success. They then decided to return to Agate Quarry. Dr. Matthew and Thomson traveled by rail, while Whitford and Stoll were to go up to the Rosebud Indian Reservation and look over that country and later join the rest at Agate Springs Quarry camp. Whitford and Stoll made this their headquarters and worked the Snake Creek beds about 20 miles to the south, while Matthew and Thomson worked the quarry. Early in Aug. Dr. Matthew returned to the museum. About Aug. 10th Mr. Chas. Barner joined the quarry party. Whitford and Stoll collected in the Snake Creek until Sept. 9th when Mr. Whitford was called back to the museum and Mr. Stoll's engagement was ended. They good a fairly good collection from the Snake Creek, though badly collected.

1915

1917