1903
-
The Newberry Collection of fossil fishes was added to the museum collections. The 3rd William C.
Whitney Expedition, 2nd to South Dakota. The party consisted of J. W. Gidley, leader, for the first
month only W. D. Matthew, Mr. A. H. Sancton, assistant and Mr. M. B. Gidley, cook. They left Chadron,
NE on June 25th. Striking the Little White River at its head, a point nearly equidistant between the Pine
Ridge and Rosebud Agencies, they started work there. The exposures were either Lower or Middle
Miocene, as proven by the Merychyus found. At Big Springs Canyon there are some Loup Fork beds
(Upper Miocene) with mastodons, camels, horses, rodents and carnivores. A second camp was
established 2 miles N of Rosebud Agency. In the vicinity of Rosebud. Lower through Upper Miocene
beds are found. The party mainly worked on the Loup Fork beds. A few days after Dr. Matthew
returned to New York the camp was moved to a point on Little White River about 5 miles W of the
Agency. In this area some of the best material was found. From this camp the party went by the old
Agency road direct to Valentine, NE, finishing the season by working in the Loup Fork exposures on
the military reservation in the vicinity of Valentine and Ft. Niobrara. The party was in the field for nearly 3
months. Expedition of 1903 to the Bridger Basin, WY. The 3 weeks work spent in the Bridger Basin in
August, 1902 by W. D. Matthew and Walter Granger on preliminary geological work for USGS, disclosed
the fact that despite repeated collecting by various parties for over 30 years, there remained enough
left for at least one more good field season. The 1903 party consisted of Mr. Granger, in charge, Mr.
Albert Thomson and Mr. L. S. Quackenbush, a volunteer. Dr. O. P. Hay joined the party in the later part
of June and remained for 6 weeks, his time being spent entirely on turtle collecting. Prof. Osborn joined
the party for 3 days in August, and at this time Mr. Thomson was transferred to Prof. Osborn's private
party in the Uintah Mountains, returning east at the close of that trip. Granger and Thomson left NY on
May 9th, arriving in Fort Bridger on the 14th where they were joined by Mr. Quackenbush. A complete
outfit was purchased at Evanston and Mr. John Backstrom was hired as teamster. Owing to inclement
weather the expedition was unable to move before May 24th, when it proceeded to Smith's Fork, near
Mountain View P. O. Here the first collecting was done, and 2 or 3 days later a camp was established
on Little Dry Creek opposite what is know as "Leavitt's Slide". Spent 2 weeks here, then proceeded to
Leavitt Creek, about 3 miles above Henry's Fork road. Little was found along Leavitt Creek Valley, but
did explore the extensive bad land pocket a mile N, a part of Grizzly Buttes. For sake of connivance for
recording localities the bluff was divide into East and West, the Henry's Fork road being the diving line.
The pocket located just N of the Leavitt's Creek camp provided to be the richest in fossils of any locality
visited. Fully half of the collection this season was made here. We spent June 12th to July 14th here.
The party then moved down Smith's Fork to the eastern end of Grizzly Buttes. 2 weeks were spent
with good results. The camp was then moved to the mouth of Cottonwood Creek (Aug. 1st to 7th),
thence to Millersville (Aug. 8th to 12th), Cottonwood Corral (Aug. 13th to Aug. 23rd) and finally to Church
Buttes (Aug. 24th to Aug. 28th). From each of these camps we explored as far as possible. Returning
to Fort Bridger the party proceeded to Henry's Fork, where camp was made at the ranch of Mr. William
Summers on August 31st. At he end of September the outfit was returned to Fort Bridger. 23 boxed of
about 3 tons in weight were shipped and Oct. 14th the party was disbanded. There were 500 recorded
specimens with about 150 being reptile, mostly turtles. Jurassic Expedition of 1903 to Southern
Wyoming. Mr. Kaisen and Mr. Paul Miller left the museum on June 1st and reached Medicine Bow on June
6th. The following day the outfit was taken to Rock Creek near Reed Quarry and camp established. Mr.
Martin Kaisen was hired a cook and quarry assistant. Work was started in Red Quarry first, as the water
in August is undrinkable. Work started immediately in removing bones. The large bones seemed to
play out. The other bones were mainly small humeri, femora and scapulae. Vertebrae were numerous,
but not many were collected because they belonged to young animals. The small bones of young
animals lay on the bottom layer. The big bones were much scarcer and lay on top. The workings were
abandoned on August 1st. About 2 miles W of Reed Quarry a prospect was worked and a femur and ilium
of Stegosaurus (nos. 956 and 957) were worked out. Camp was pitched near Bone Cabin Quarry on
August 3rd. A stripping of about 1,200 feet was made before collecting began. About 800 square feet
was explored. The bones were scarcer than before. Toward the close of the season a pocket was
found with good bones that seemed to continue under the bank. Here was found the most valuable
specimen of the season, a Diplodocus skull. 32 boxed were filled, weighing 10,000 lbs. On Sept. 25th
work was closed for the season and the outfit placed with Mr. Beery for the winter. Mr. Kaisen and Mr.
Miller returned to the museum. Expedition to South Dakota, Montana and Arkansas. The work assigned
to Barnum Brown was investigating the Niobrara Cretaceous near Edgemont, SD and a reconnaissance
of the Jurassic flanking the Big Horn Mountains in WY and MT. At Edgemont Brown rented an outfit from
George Miller and hired Mr. L. R. Parkin as an assistant. Leaving Edgemont on May 20th, they traveled
south and established camp on Middle Alkali Creek, about 20 miles south of Edgemont, where they
remained for 5 weeks. The country between Hat Creek and Cottonwood Creek is rolling prairie and shales
are exposed on hillsides where rains and winds have eroded grass from the surface (blowouts). Such
areas are limited. One of these blowouts, exposed on the S side of N. Alkali Creek in and near Mr. J.
Doos' pasture, yielded a large number of fine material. A fine mosasaur was found here as well as a
large part of a plesiosaur and a smaller plesiosaur near by. June 29th they moved to the breaks of
Cottonwood Creek near Mr. Tinney's ranch, several good specimens were found at this camp, and a
complete vertebral column of a mosasaur was found at Mule Creek, 15 miles E. On July 12th they
moved to Mule Creek, 4 miles from Mr. Wilson's ranch, where they finished the season's work on
July18th.The exposures on Mule and Agate Creek are very rich in fossils, including a pterosaur skeleton.
They marked specimens for another season. Brown had made arrangements with Mr. Sparhawk of
Buffalo, WY to look at a dinosaur skeleton. This proved to be a limb of little value. Mr. Brown then did
a hasty survey of the Jurassic of the southern face ofd the Big Horn. He drove to the Middle Fork of
the Powder River, where Mr. Utterback was working on a Diplodocus for Carnegie Museum. The
fossils were not numerous and more or less crushed. The area around was not promising. The most
favorable part was on the Powder River, 90 miles from the railroad in very rough, mountainous country.
Returning to Sheridan, Brown rented an outfit, started N to follow the exposure and connect with the past
year's exploration. On Beauvais Creek he found the best exposures, where the beds are least
disturbed, nearly horizontal. Near Mr. Cashen' house Brown opened up 3 quarries. 3 miles E of Mr.
Cashen's house Brown found 4 limbs of a large Morosaur in good condition. Near the Morosaur Brown
found a side hill were numerous bones were weathering out, resembling Bone Cabin Quarry, but the
strata soon dips under a heavy ledge sandstone and probably not turn out connected material. N. of
Beauvais Creek the Jurassic is covered with shales identified as Fort Benton, which contains some
good fossils. About 5 miles from Cashen's a skull and part of a vertebral column of a plesiosaur was
found. This ended the seasons work in Montana. Brown returned home, where he received word on a
site in Arkansas. Brown made arrangements with Mr. Waldo Conrad, the discoverer of the site to visit
the locality. He arrived in Harrison on Sept. 22nd. The entire country is mountainous and heavily wooded.
The mountain sides are a vast ledge of Carboniferous limestone composed principally of crinoid stems.
The ledges are seamed in all directions by crevasses which are open in many places. While sinking a
shaft for zinc in the head of one of these crevasses Mr. Conrad went through a bone bed. For 8 feet
below the surface no bones were found, but from there to the bottom, a distance of 12 feet, bones
occurred in great numbers, cemented on the walls by stalactite drip and in the interstices through the
clay. Brown only had a few days to make a preliminary collection, so spent his time in looking in the
dump and washing dirt. 315 individuals representing 36 species were collected. Several days were
spent in examining fissures and creek beds, but no other indications of bones were found.
|