To Sum it Up: Last Days of Field Season 2011

 

I am updating last year's blog, just days before we depart for Buffalo, South Dakota, for this year's adventures in the Hell Creek.

As the July 8th. entry describes, the Tinker site finally revealed some of it's treasures, just days before the season ended. The storm did blow through that night and everything was wet and muddy. Fortunately, channels had been dug around fossils, including Laurel's, so the work removing the remainder of the standing water, was not as time consuming as it could have been. However, the heavy rains made the terrain very slippery. Steve's directive was clear: no prospecting due to hazardous conditions.

Laurel and I focussed efforts on clearing the water from her fossils so that when the sun returned, the fossils would dry before being foiled and jacketed. We also helped on the Tinker site. It was a fantastic day. Helping to expose a nine foot long 65 million year old tree (two were found), was especially remarkable. You could see bark details and the stubs of branches. Amazing.

Lying perpendicular to the parallel trees was a T. rex radial. Being in beautiful condition, another round of ooohs and aaahs rose up from the crowd. After it was jacketed and removed, a perfect T. rex tooth was revealed underneath. More exclamations and congratulations went round the site.

The writer and photographer were kept very busy documenting the days progress and surprises. Laurel and I went back and forth between her fossils and the Tinker site. There was plenty of work to accomplish while the weather was good.

As the day drew to a close, Steve and one of the students foiled and jacketed Laurel's fossils, and then Steve and Ron loaded it into his vehicle. She decided to have it professionally cleaned and repaired and Ron, generously offered to deliver it.

The day was successful for everyone. With more days to come.

We took a day to go out on our own. It is kind of a big deal to drive out to the location and not see another vehicle or person all day. We hiked and walked all over the place, trying to cover areas we had not searched in before. We stopped to have lunch on a bluff with a great view of the sunny skies and tall grasses and potential productive fossil areas. I unloaded my pack, sat down next to Laurel, and looking at my left foot, noticed a familiar shape lying next to it. Lucky me, it was a tiny tooth. Nice picnic spot.

The afternoon was pretty frustrating. We found some really weathered bones that were apparently exposed some years before. They could have originated from a formation nearby, but it was beyond our reach. Safety first. Maybe in years ahead, the potential fossils within, will weather out and become part of our collection.

The end of our week came too soon, as always. The weather had certainly been a participant this year, and we vowed to come for a longer stay in 2012. The Tinker site added another 13 nice fossils to the already collected bones from years past. Ron is pleased and all participants have the satisfaction of helping to excavate this important Tyrannosaurus rex site. Hope we receive updates on the cleaning and restoration process.

Cheers for now.