In the footsteps of the early bone diggers

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Geologists of Jackson Hole will present a special program exploring some of the earliest diggings in southwest Wyoming, led by Dr. Emmett Evanoff of the University of Colorado.

Early vertebrate paleontologists and geologists of the late 1800s and early 1900s did not have detailed topographic maps or aerial photographs to locate their fossil localities or geologic features. However, they did employ photographers to take images of the intricately eroded badlands where they found fossils.

The earliest of these photographs, taken between 1868 and 1870, were to provide the public a visual record of the bizarre erosional features of the badlands. These photographs supplemented the geologic survey’s annual reports so that Congress would grant their yearly funding. By the earliest 20th century, scenic photographs started to take a secondary role to documenting fossil localities.

These photographs now provide not only a historical record of the early surveys. They also provide the only record of the precise locations of important fossil localities, many of which were type localities of important fossil vertebrates. These photographs record landform changes over the past century, including erosion of the badlands, erosion of stream valleys, and, in some cases, deposition of sediments at the base of the badlands.

Finally, the photographs also show historic camps providing a view of what working in the field was like in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The examples used in this presentation are from the Bridger Basin of southwestern Wyoming and Badlands National Park in South Dakota, taken, in part, from the photo archives of the U.S. Geological Survey and the American Museum of Natural History.

In the Footsteps of the Early Bone Diggers: Locating Historic Photographic Sites in the Bridger Basin
of Southwest Wyoming and Badlands National Park presented by Dr. Emmett Evanoff. June 7, 6pm at the Teton County Library and via Zoom.