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DNM



I was telling my brother and father about the closing of the Dino Natl Mon 
visitor's center and it got me thinking. In 1962 my father put seat belts 
(prior 
to that child safety consisted of an arm across the chest to keep the cranium 
from colliding with the solid steel dashboard or going throught he 
windshield, it was a very effective procedure) in our brand new, white Ford 
Falcon 
station wagon and we took off for Salt Lake City where my mother's side of the 
family is from (her mother having lived from 1901-2002 and is now buried in 
Arlington Natl Cem along with her husband). It was before the interstates and 
how 
they got so far in a single day is beyond me. Wash DC to NW Ohio, Fort Wayne IN 
to Ames Iowa, then to Cheyenne WY. From there we went across the still snowy 
high Wyoming plains in mid-June and drove right through the teeming metropolis 
of Medicine Bow past Como Bluff with my having no clue. (In the first Sherlock 
Holmes story, the anti-Mormon A Study in Scarlet, Doyle describes this region 
in The Country of the Saints as the "Great Alkali Plain," "an arid and 
repulsive desert" which "comprimises snow-capped and lofty mountains, and dark 
and 
gloomy valleys.") In SW Wyoming we finally left the Rt 30 we had been on since 
Indiana and stopped down in Vernal for the night. Next day In Vernal we 
stopped at the local museum where they had/ve a cement cast of Diplodocus 
outdoors. 
On the way to the DNM we drove past a oil tank that was on fire producing a 
long dark cloud. It was 6/13 -- my late mother's event calender recorded each 
day's events. 

Of course we diverted to DNM because at 7 I was a budding paleontologist. My 
favorite dinosaurs were Brontosaurus, Diplodocus and especially Brachiosaurus. 
They were so huge that they could barely drag their massive bodies out of the 
water. It said so in all the books so don't believe all that nonsense 
otherwise.  I would like to say that I was impressed with the rock wall and all 
the 
dinosaur bones. I would like to but I cannot tell a lie. I was quite 
disappointed because back then hardly anything was exposed. What a gyp man. 

Next time I visited was 1969 when I was shipped by myself to SLC for the 
summer. My great aunt and naturalist/artist Laurel (who I dedicated PDW to) 
drove 
me and my cousin Bill to Vernal. That time I better noticed the spectacular 
drive along the Green River to the visitor center. By then the rock wall had 
far 
many more remains exposed and it was impressive. Even better was the superb 
dinoart of wildlife artist Bill Berry. Along with Knight's it is my favorite 
old-school dinoart and I was pleased to include it in The Scientific American 
Book of the Dinosaur. At the Vernal museum also noticed the wild and wacky 
dinoart of local paleontologist 

I next visited DNM in 78 with Bakker's crew when we got to go up on the wall 
as it was nearing its completion. After Bakker VW van lost part of its brakes 
it was enjoyable camping below Split Mt on the Green River for a couple of 
days. I put in a bird to redo the exhibit art back in the 80s, but it was too 
high for the Park Service (i.e. reasonable but above slave wages). 

Having spent a fair amount of time on the Morrison am all too familiar with 
the instability of the popcorn soils when wet. 

GSPaul