July 9, 2019
I knew there were a lot of dinosaur finds in Utah. The breadth of them, however, escaped us. This little gem of a museum displayed fossils, dinosaur bones, complete dinosaurs and more.
Probably the most fascinating part to us was the exhibit about how dinosaur tracks are found in coal mines. The dinosaur steps in a peat bog and leaves a print. It gets covered with sand and other materials, and under pressure turns into coal. When miners were digging out coal, they would come to these interesting spots where sandstone (the “stuff” inside the footprint) was out of place. They would then find the footprint in the coal vein. Some of the footprints were two feet long – those were some huge dinosaurs.
Also in the museum was a display of some lovely Native American art work – contemporary and not – mostly rugs and baskets. One was an Escher-style optical illusion rug that I would have loved to have owned . . . but not today. They also had a children’s area with a large diorama, a large mammoth skeleton, a dire wolf, and other interesting factoids. Even pack rats become archaeologists!
This museum was just the right size – full enough to explain much without overwhelming with too much information. We would highly recommend.
Oh, and Woody escaped without being eaten by the Allosaurus. Phew!
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