1911
- Purchased part of a skeleton and lower jaw of a Cretaceous pterosaur from the Niobrara Chalk,
collected by George Sternberg; skull and jaws of an extinct wolf, Canis indianensis. Received as gift
several mastodon teeth. The Expedition of 1911 to the Agate Springs Quarry, Lower Harrison Beds,
Agate, Sioux Co., Nebraska, by Albert Thomson. Before Thomson's arrival at Agate, a space of 100
feet by 15 feet had been stripped off, down to the bone layer of the quarry. This cut was made in the
old Carnegie Museum quarry. Mr. Harold J. Cook with the assistance of 3 men had done this. The 3
men were hired to help remove bones, but were very inexperienced and many difficulties were
encountered. The work started at the E side and went toward the west. The first area had extremely
hard matrix and the bones were soft, so the progress was slow. The most common animal was
Diceratherium, about 75 skull and many limbs and foot bones were excavated. These were left at Agate for
Mr. Charles Barner to work out and Mr. Cook to study. A Dinohyus skull and jaws with a forelimb and foot and
some vertebrae and ribs was the prize find of the season. Only about half of what was stripped was
worked out. Next season should be easier, as the hard matrix has apparently come to an end.
Expedition to the Eocene of Wyoming, 1911, by Walter Granger. The party consisted of Mr. Walter
Granger, in charge, Dr. William J. Sinclair, of Princeton, George Olsen of the museum, and Mr. Darrel
Blakesley of Otto, cook and teamster. Dr. Wm. K. Gregory joined the party for 8 days while they were
camped on the Shoshone River. Mr. Granger and Dr. Sinclair joined Mr. Olsen in the Buffalo Basin on
June 23rd and went out to St. Joe on June 24th. 2 or 3 days were spent going over old territory there, and on
the 28th the outfit left for the lower Buffalo Basin. Camps were made as follows: June 28th Otto, June
29th Big Horn River below Manderson, June 30th to July 5th Five Mile Creek, July 5th to 7th mouth of Ten
Mike Creek, July 7th to 9th Ranch 5 miles east of Worland, July 9th to 11th Big Horn River at Worland,
July 12th to 15th Gooseberry Creek near Perkin's ranch, July 16th to 30th Parker Spring at head of
Fifteen Mile Creek. From Parker Spring Olsen and Sinclair conducted 2 day camps on Fifteen Mile
Creek about 10 to 15 miles below Parker Springs. July 30th to Aug. 2nd at Sleepers' ranch on the Gray
Bull, Aug. 5th to 9th at Olsen's ranch at foot of W slope of McCulloch Peaks, Aug 11th to 14th at ranch
along railway 2 miles E of Ralston, from which camp the Ralston beds were worked. Aug 15th to 16th
Cunningham's ranch on Shoshone River about 5 miles above Garland Bridge, Aug. 17th to Sept. 10th
South Bank of Shoshone River about 6 miles above Cunninghams' Ranch; Sinclair and Olsen again
conducted a dry camp from this point, going into the badlands 5 or 6 miles to the SE (Sept. 4th to 8th),
Sept. 11th to 17th Renner's ranch at Fenton on the Gray Bull. Dr. Sinclair left the party here on the 16th
and returned to Princeton. Sept. 17th to 29th McGee's ranch on the Gray Bull opposite Coyote Canyon.
The party returned on Sept. 21st to St. Joe, where Mr. Granger returned to the museum. Olsen
assisted by Blakesley continued to work in the region, until Oct. 20th when work was done for the
season. Report for the year 1911 by Barnum Brown. Brown spent 2 weeks in Dec. 1910 taking out the
Fort Lee phytosaur, which was completed Dec. 23rd. In January 1911 he went to Mrs. Adairs ranch, 20
mi. E of Clarendon, TX to examine elephant remains. It had been torn out by workmen and mostly
destroyed, but a jaw and teeth were collected. It was Elaphas columbi. He left Clarendon on Jan. 14th and
started for Mexico. In Torres, Mexico, he met Mr. Reed, who was building a narrow gauge railroad
from Torres to Repressa. Mr. Reed had discovered a mastodon jaw and part of a skeleton near
Repressa at San Jose de Pima. It had been found 2 years before, and most had been eroded away. It
had been vandalized by a boy, but what remained of a lower jaw was boxed and shipped. Brown then
traveled to central Mexico. Between Colima and Guadalajara, near Lake Chapala and Sayula, Brown
saw some mastodon remains in Pleistocene? exposures and heard of a good many more. Workmen
discover skeletons while collecting salt that has evaporated in the fall. This is the best locality for
elephant and mastodon remains in Mexico. At Ameca, at some time during the Pleistocene the valley
was dammed up, forming a lake. Bad land exposures were prominent at the lower end of the valley.
Brown examined those 12 miles E of Ameca on the San Miguel and El Guist Haciendas and found remains
of mastodon, mammoth, horse and cat. He also found a complete carapace of a glyptodon, which he
thought would pay to work out in the future. Dr. Aguilera in Mexico City gave him information on
various Mexican fossil localities. From Mexico City he traveled by rail N to Quaretero, where a railroad
man gave him information on a deposit near Salena where numerous reptile bones have been found.
Brown thought this deposit was probably a continuation of the Ratlesnake beds N of the Rio Grande.
Arriving in Texas, he took an automobile and drove 85 mi. S into the Chisos Mountains in the Big Bend
area, reported upon by Prof. Udden. The next stop was Schubuta, Miss., where he drove 20 miles to
Cocoa, AL in search of Zeugleon. This was worked by Dr. Schuchert for the National Museum. Brown
found 3 specimens, all of the material was covered and marked for further investigation. Brown returned
to Miss. to look into several localities, most not worth further investigation. At Natches he saw teeth and
bones of mastodon and heard that mastodon remains had been found on Avery Island in the Gulf of
Mexico. Brown then went to Tallahassee, FL where he met Mr. Sellards and learned of the chief
phosphate deposits in FL. Brown then headed for Lakeland, FL. At Zolfo on Peace Creek, he
examined the dredged material from the sides of the stream, where Leidy had collected material in
former years. The fossils are numerous, but broken and disassociated and not worth further investigation.
A few miles below the railroad crossing at Zolfo, Brown found remains of a mammoth. The jaws were
saved, but the rest was left. At Mulberry and Plant City, Brown went to a number of phosphate mines and
examined the material preserved and watched the workings. The mines are worked with hydraulic
streams, and fossils are not found until they are torn out of the banks and consequently destroyed. Some
teeth and a few bones are all that remain. From Mulberry he went to Sarasota Bay to see Mathini beach,
where he collected Equus teeth, plates of Glyptodon and a tooth of Elephas columbi. This is a small strip
of beach which is only uncovered at low tide and not worth further investigation. Leaving Tampa on Apr.
2nd and arrived at Havana, Cuba on April 4th. He met Doctor de la Torre and arranged for an exploring trip
of Cuba. The party consisted of Dr. de la Torre, Mr. Rodriquez and B. Brown. They traveled by various
means to the mountains of Sierra Jatibonico, in which is located a fissure or cacaimba. Dr. de la Torre
had found a great many edentate bones in the past. They hired natives and worked it, but found only a
few bones. They examined other caves in the vicinity, but found nothing important. From there
returned to Caibarien, then to Remedios were other bones were reported, but did not find any. They
then traveled S to a spring where a jaw had been found. The spring is known as Banos de Ciego
Montero, a well known health resort. It consists of 3 thermal springs with temperatures of 94, 96 and 98
degrees. The one of 98 degrees is know as Chapepote. This the one that the original jaw was found and
was overgrown with grasses and rushes. They got a workman to dive into the spring. After a time he
succeeded in bring up a hand full of mud with 2 bone fragments. He then brought up some crocodile
vertebrae, ribs and turtle bones. They then obtained a large hand pump and employed men to work it night
and day. They took out enough water, so they could dig around the edge of the spring. They obtained
many jaws, but in 3 days the outlet was so opened that they could not keep out the water. It was then
necessary to obtain a fire pump and eventually obtained a more powerful pump. They worked for nearly
4 weeks, till they dug down to the basaltic rock. There is still surrounding clays with bones in them.
They left Banos de Ciego Montero on June 7th and returned to Havana. Brown left for New York on the
13th. After several weeks went to Canada, arriving at Stetler, Alberta July 12th, where he was joined by
Mr. Kaisen. They drove to the river and established camp at the Ankylosaurus quarry. During the winter
Mr. Davenport had completed the excavation. They worked the quarry until it was exhausted, finding
some bones that ran into a tight bank. This took about 3 weeks. They then recalked the boat and
launched it. During this time found a complete skeleton of Podischion. While Mr. Kaisen uncovered it,
Brown went to Red Deer Village to have another small boat built. There Prof. Osborn and Madison Grant
joined them. On Aug. 29th started down the river and spent 4 days examining the Paskopoo and Edmonton
Formations, reaching camp on Sept. 2nd. For 2 days they explored the river in the small boat, going as
far as the Judith River beds at the mouth of Berry Creek, 250 miles below Red Deer Village. At this
point a lower jaw and scapula of Monoclonius and a fine armored dinosaur skull was collected. Dr. Osborn
and Mr. Grant left at this point and Brown returned to camp, having been gone a month. Mr. Kaisen had
completed work on the Trachodon skeleton, and they made a new camp 3 miles below. From there
they explored 4 miles below, collecting all bones found. The work was finished Oct. 5th and the boats
again beached and equipment stored at Tolman.
|