FOSSIL HUNTING IN THE BR1DGER BASIN 

 OF WYOMING 



By CHARLES W. GILMORE, 

 Curator, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, U. S. National Museum 



In the southwestern part of Wyoming an extensive area of badland 

 country known as the Bridger Basin has long been a fertile collecting 

 field for those in quest of the remains of fossil vertebrates. This basin, 

 the formation, and the early military post called Fort Bridger were all 

 named in honor of Jim Bridger, that intrepid frontiersman, scout, and 

 Indian fighter who pioneered this region. 



The first collection of fossils from the Bridger formation was made 

 in 1870 by a Yale party under the leadership of Prof. O. C. Marsh, 

 and it marked the beginning of a long series of expeditions which have 

 disclosed the varied and abundant animal life that existed here in 

 Eocene times. The need of an adequate representation of this impor- 

 tant fauna in the National Museum collections has been long felt, 

 and it was to supply this need that in the spring of 1930 plans were 

 consummated for an expedition into the Bridger area. 



In the latter part of May, I left Washington for Green River, Wyo- 

 ming, the base of operations, where I was joined by Messrs. George F. 

 Sternberg and George B. Pearce, both of Hays, Kansas ; the former as 

 field assistant and the latter as cook for the party. From Green River 

 we proceeded almost immediately to Fort Bridger in the southwestern 

 part of the Basin where supplies were obtained, and our first camp was 

 established on Smith's Fork, near the small town of Mountain View. 



Prior to entering the field my tentative plan of operations was to 

 begin in the southwestern part of the Basin and work eastward, 

 searching in succession the exposures which are to be found paralleling 

 the courses of the several creeks that flow northward into the Basin 

 from the foothills of the Uinta Mountains to the south. In the main 

 this plan was adhered to. 



Failing to find much of interest along Smith's Fork, we soon moved 

 camp to the head of Little Dry Creek where better success awaited us. 

 Several weeks were spent here in systematically searching the denuded 

 breaks and hills that form the escarpment along this creek and our work 

 was well rewarded. In the first few days here an incident occurred 

 that is so unusual as to seem worth relating. One day in crossing a 

 small water course the car became stalled in the soft mud of the creek 



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