Fkbeuaby 9, 1900.] 



SCmNGE. 



233 



FOSSIL-HUNTING IN WYOMING. 



Editor op Science : An article on ' Fossil- 

 hunting in Wyoming,' published in the January 

 issue of The Cosmopolitan, contains some inac- 

 curacies which ought to be corrected. The 

 present writer feels called upon to make these 

 corrections. As many of the illustrations used 

 in the Cosmopolitan article were from photo- 

 graphs of the Field Columbian Museum quarries, 

 the erroneous impression has gone out in certain 

 quarters that members of this institution were 

 responsible for some of the misstatements, 

 especially one which has been interpreted as a 

 reflection upon a man to whom the science of 

 paleontology owes much. I wish, therefore, to 

 give a brief history of the discovery and collec- 

 tion of Dinosaurs in America, which I have 

 sought to make as accurate as possible. The 

 data regarding their discovery and early collec- 

 tion have been furnished me by Dr. Williston, 

 whose association with Professor Marsh during 

 his early work upon the Dinosaurs places him 

 in position to speak authoritatively. 



The first Jurassic .fossil discovered in Amer- 

 ica was described in 1870 by Leidy under the 

 name Antrodemus (Labrasaurus, Marsh, fide 

 Lucas). Professor Arthur Lakes of Golden, 

 Colorado, was, however, the first to recognize 

 and appreciate the value of the deposits. In 

 March, 1877, he located the horizon near Mor- 

 rison, Colorado, and immediately St,^t speci- 

 mens to Professor Marsh. Almost contempo- 

 raneously but a little later, fossils were dis- 

 covered at Canon City, Colorado, by O. Lucas, 

 a teacher, and in Wyoming by W. H. Reed, a 

 section foreman on the Union Pacific railroad. 

 Reed, however, did not make known his dis- 

 coveries until the following autumn and so 

 forfeited any claim to priority. 



In December of the same year Dr. Williston, 

 who had been collecting for Marsh at Caiion 

 City and later at Morrison, was sent to investi- 

 gate the discovery reported by Reed at Como, 

 Wyoming. Under his directions and assisted 

 by Reed, quarry 1. of the Como series was at 

 once opened and the work continued until lAte 

 in the winter. During the succeeding years 

 collecting was actively carried on in the Como 

 region and as many as thirteen quarries in all 

 were opened by the various men who had 



charge of the work. Collecting was carried on 

 exclusively by Marsh for two or three years, at 

 the end of which time Cope sent men into the 

 immediate vicinity. After the Como quarries 

 were abandoned, no collecting was done in the 

 Jurassic beds for a number of years and the im- 

 pression went out that the locality was ex- 

 hausted. Interest in the beds was, however, 

 revived by Professor W. C. Knight of the Uni- 

 versity of Wyoming, and W. H. Reed, who as 

 early as the summer of '94 located and opened 

 a new quarry at Mexican Mines, Wyoming. 

 In the following summer Dr. Williston with a 

 party from Kansas University was invited to 

 share with them their new prospect. In '96 

 collecting was continued by the University of 

 Wyoming in the Jurassic beds south of Laramie. 

 In the spring of '97 the American Museum of 

 New York sent men into the old Como locality 

 to reopen Marsh's mammal quarry ; but finding 

 more promising material in the Dinosaur beds, 

 their attention was turned to them. About the 

 same time Knight's men opened quarries in the 

 Freeze-out Hills. During the following year 

 collecting was actively carried on by these two 

 parties in their respective localities, and valu- 

 able quarries opened by both. 



In '99 unusual attention was attracted to the 

 Dinosaur beds of Wyoming by various press 

 reports more sensational than accurate. In ad- 

 dition to the two institutions which had been 

 carrying on active work, parties were sent out 

 by the University of Kansas and by the Car- 

 negie and Field Columbian museums. The 

 Union Pacific railway also organized an excur- 

 sion to the fossil fields, which brought not only 

 paleontologists and geologists, but men in- 

 terested in almost every branch of - natural 

 science to look at this new Eldorado. Among 

 the new quarries opened during the year, those 

 of the Carnegie Museum and Kansas University 

 proved especially productive. 



The valuable deposit worked out by the Field 

 Columbian Museum party had not previously 

 been passed over by ' a Kansas University pro- 

 fessor,' as stated by the author of the Cosmopol- 

 itan article. On the contrary the quarry had 

 been located and worked for some time by-the 

 Kansas University men. After they had taken 

 out a large quantity of unusually good material 



