One of the most important factors when it comes to a large scale paleontological dig is to have good support from the surrounding community. Over the last few summers Burpee has been blessed with wonderful hosts in the townspeople of Hanksville. A few notables who have given their time and support to us include Mayor Curtis Whipple, Don and Connie Pfoutz, the whole crew a Blondies Restaurant and of course Sue Fivecoat and Buzz Rakow at the local BLM. It seems like everyone is behing making the Hanksville-Burpee a success. In fact, one young man decided to make protecting the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry the focus of his Eagle Scout Project. 18 year old, Jake Finkelstein’s project was ambitious and much needed. Jake planed, supervised and help build a 450 foot fence with two metal gates one the south entrance to the quarry. 
This fence is made of sturdy pine posts driven 3 feet down into solid sandstone. In addition Jake built a kiosk so that information about the quarry can be posted for visitors when we are not around. This new construction gives the site a more “permanent” and professional feel. It will also make it harder for people to drive vehicles up onto the site and will help deter any bone poaching. Now that tours have started up we have had many compliments. Good Job Jake!
Work has been progessing at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry. Just a reminder, the quarry is a giant late Jurassic Period (147-150 million years ago) dinosaur bonebed. It is found within the world famous Morrison Formation. Dinosaurs like Apatosaurus (aka Brontosaurus), Camarasaurus, Diplodocus and the theropod (meat-eater), Allosaurus are found in this formation. The formation represents fluvial (river) deposits. When rivers and streams flooded, this allowed dinosaur carcasses to be buried quickly. Geology lesson aside, we spend up work once we had more help.
Morrison Formation
Now that Dr. Matt Bonnan and his students from Western Illinois University have been at the quarry more discoveries have been made everyday. In the last three days at least 20 new bones have been discovered including Barosaurus cervical (neck) vertebra, a new scapula (shoulder blade) and what might be a partially articulated Allosaurus vertebral column.
Andy & Tammy
One particular find was made by Burpee Volunteers; Andy and Tammy Prell. Andy and Tammy have several years of field work experience, first completing two field seasons with Dr. Thomas Carr, Carthage College in the Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana and then last year with Burpee. Andy spent three days working on pedestalling one of the big scapulae and Tammy found a very large thoracic (chest) rib. This rib was missing its distal (bottom) half, but had a huge rib head. I would estimate that this rib if complete would be about seven feet in length. This means that this dinosaur would have an enormous, barrel chest. In addition to these finds ….one of the WIU Students, Megan Luczak found a very interesting bone. I have my suspicions, but it needs to be prepped more. Once I know more….so will you! Stay tuned.
Tuesday; work continued in earnest at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry. Several new bones were found in a short time before we were chased out by a late spring thunderstorm. Fortunately we made it out of the field before our vehicle got mired in the mud.
Double Arch
With time to spare, we decided to visit one of the best attractions in Utah, Arches National Park. The park sits at the bottom of the LaSal Moutain Range and I must admit this has become one of my favorite parks right behind Yellowstone. Several formations are present in the park, but two are the most prominent; Navajo and Entrada. Most of the arches form from the weathering of the Entrada sandstones. 
If you ever get to Moab you need to visit. Despite the rain, we were productive and saw what Utah has to offer.
After arriving in Hanksville, we set to opening the quarry. Our first day we were treated to low 80’s and a nice breeze. In a short time we re-opened the quarry from its winter slumber. 
I am happy to report that all of the plaster jackets we buried last summer survived and none were vandalized. After exposing and removing these winter jackets we began our excavations. Almost immediately two new bones were discovered; two scapulae (shoulder blades) to a Camarasaurus. Camarasaurus is a type of sauropod (long necked, four legged dinosaur) that lived at the end of Jurassic Period (around 147 million years ago). This herbivorous dinosaur could grow up to 65 feet long and weigh 20 tons. Interestingly, like most of our finds it appears these shoulderblades belong to a sub-adult (“teenaged”) dinosaur. 
We got a lot done in a short time. I look forward to more discoveries and the arrival of Dr. Matt Bonnan and his students from Western Illinois University.
Foggy Rockies
Well another field season is upon the Burpee Museum. On Thursday, May 13th, Josh Mathews and I left Northern Illinois, destination; The Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry in Hanksville, Utah. In case you missed it, in 2008 Burpee discovered one of the largest dinosaur bonebeds found in North American within the last thiry years. This monstrous bonebed extends for nearly one quarter mile and is three hundred feet wide. So far we have begun exacavating several well known late Jurassic dinosaurs like, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus and possibly Allosaurus. In fact, since 2008 Burpee has excavated over 12,000 lbs of dinosaur bones.
This year we did not drive to Utah directly, instead we took a detour to Woodland Park to visit the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. We met with owner/Director Michael Triebold to place an order. We ordered a mounted cast of the “bone-headed” dinosaur, Pachycephalosaurus.
This cast will end up being part of the Homer Triceratops exhibit we plan to open in May, 2012. This was exciting for me as I had the luck to collect a pachy skull dome back in 2001! After a productive day of researching some of their new tyrannosaurid specimens and marvelling over the mounted 45 foot long Tylosaurus named “Bunker” we headed out. ONTO UTAH!!
Driving to Utah is always a wonderful because you get to go through the Rocky Mountains. This year mother nature rewarded us with snow and wildlife. At about 10,000 feet we drove through a small blizzard. Of course, Josh and I had to stop and like any good tourists got lots of pictures.
Big Horn Herd
Baby Bighorn
It was amazing! We ended up stopping (or should I saw swerving off the road in a semi-uncontrolled manner) because I spotted a heard of Big Horn Sheep about 20 feet from I-70!! We got some excellent pictures of a “gang” of young males and then we spotted a baby Big Horn….awww. It was ridiculously cute….so more picture taking. After adding a few hours of picturing taking we resumed our trip to Utah.
Utah's Goblin Valley State Park
Session #1 Starts in Hanksville UT on May 24th. Burpee’s educators will travel to Utah in time to give tours of the dig site Memorial Day weekend.
Visit www.burpee.org/education/expeditions to read more about how to join the crew in Utah or Montana this summer.
Highway to Hell Creek
Expeditions Orientation
Saturday, April 17, 1:00-3:00 PM
Free and open to the public.
Burpee kicks off a new field season with the first of two orientation sessions. If you’re on the fence about joining the excavation site in Utah, this is your chance to find out more. If you’re interested in Montana, you’ll have a second chance on July 10. To read more and print registration forms visit www.burpee.org/education/expeditions
- Utah, May 24-28
- Utah, May 31-June 6
- Utah, June 7-11
- Montana, July 25-31
- Montana, August 1-7
Family Fossil Field Trip
Saturday, April 24, 1:00-4:00 PM
Three hours collecting fossils in a quarry, what could be better?
Preregistration and prepayment are required. Open to all ages.
Minimum of 20, maximum of 50 participants. Rain dates will be offered. Location: Trask Bridge
FEES: $10 Members $15 Non-Members
CALL: 815-965-3433 X1000
Become a member and enjoy the benefits, www.burpee.org/membership
As many of you already know, the Burpee Museum is undergoing a great deal of construction right now. We’re not only expanding the museum, but we’re also doing some remodels and renovations of the building. Currently, the main focus of the remodel stage is taking place in our lower level. As I type this, walls are coming down in the former paleontology viewing lab.
When the last blog entry was posted at the beginning of the month, our museum’s biology and anthropology collection were just about ready to be moved. After many late nights for the lab staff, the move has finally been completed, and our collections has a new home. The entire process, from painting the floor in the new collections room to mounting specimens on the walls, took about three weeks to complete. While our paleontology and geology collection still isn’t ready yet, it was fun to see all of the new space that will be used for research in the future.
Let’s take a look….
We have more space in the new collections, as well as a new pattern of organization to the specimens, and a workspace so that visiting researchers will have room to examine the specimens.
It’s been a long month for our staff to get this major project finished, but they have done a great job, and we’re all very excited about our new home for collections!
Happy Holidays from all of us at Burpee Museum!
December is finally here, and with several months of winter on the way, I couldn’t help but to try to think warm for this month’s “Undiscovered Treasure.” While Rockford may find itself hitting a balmy 50 degrees on
December 1st, weather like that isn’t going to stick around. I personally can’t ever find myself enjoying cold weather, so I decided to fire up the electric blanket and keep my mind on tropical temps. But what sort of item reflects that?
The fan.
Imagine it being December and you’re in some type of climate where you need to physically move air around yourself to cool off.
Sound good enough to ward off the chilly weather? I thought so.
Burpee’s Oriental collection has an interesting set of fans; including ones made of wood, silk, and feathers. In China, the earliest hand-held fans were made as early as the 2nd century BC! We are not sure how old exactly our fans at the Burpee are, but we know that this implement certainly is long-standing. …or long waving.
We’ve chosen two different fans to display t
his month: a silk fan and a feather fan.
So when you’re visiting the Burpee this month and you’re checking out the Undiscovered Treasures exhibit on the 3rd floor, even if it’s snowing outside, think back to the 2nd century BC, back in China, and imagine a day hot enough where you might need one of these. Those winter blues won’t last!
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One of the most important factors when it comes to a large scale paleontological dig is to have good support from the surrounding community. Over the last few summers Burpee has been blessed with wonderful hosts in the townspeople of Hanksville. A few notables who have given their time and support to us include Mayor Curtis Whipple, Don and Connie Pfoutz, the whole crew a Blondies Restaurant and of course Sue Fivecoat and Buzz Rakow at the local BLM. It seems like everyone is behing making the Hanksville-Burpee a success. In fact, one young man decided to make protecting the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry the focus of his Eagle Scout Project. 18 year old, Jake Finkelstein’s project was ambitious and much needed. Jake planed, supervised and help build a 450 foot fence with two metal gates one the south entrance to the quarry. 
This fence is made of sturdy pine posts driven 3 feet down into solid sandstone. In addition Jake built a kiosk so that information about the quarry can be posted for visitors when we are not around. This new construction gives the site a more “permanent” and professional feel. It will also make it harder for people to drive vehicles up onto the site and will help deter any bone poaching. Now that tours have started up we have had many compliments. Good Job Jake!
Themocracy