Dinosaur National Monument, Utah - August 12, 2004

 If you want to see long-term history, this is a good place to visit.  The dinosaurs that led to this park roamed the area some 150 million years ago.  Their bodies accumulated in this location, being moved and covered in mud by the river, then hardened into rock and were finally exposed by uplift action that created nearby mountains.  The fossils were first discovered in 1909 by a team of paleontologists from Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  Many were shipped to Pittsburgh for study and display.  The site was designated a national monument in 1915 to prevent further exploitation.  The original park covered 80 acres, but was expanded to 210,000 acres in 1938.

 In addition to the fossil displays, the park contains mountains, canyons, the Green River and camping facilities.  Colorful badlands make up large portions of the park.  Much of the monument is now in Colorado, but most visitors see little more than the fossils.  One activity is rafting on the river, which flows through Split Mountain. 

 There are some ranches grand-fathered in from the early days.  One early rancher was a woman named Josie Morris, who grew up on her family's ranch.  In 1914, Josie built her own spread where she lived until 1963.  A tough lady, Josie was married five times and accused of cattle rustling twice (acquitted both times).  She entertained friends at her small cabin, including Butch Cassidy.  Josie was forced to leave when she broke her hip in a fall on the ice.  The next year she died at age 90.

Indigenous people lived here for more than a thousand years and have been named the Fremont culture.  They lived in caves and rock overhangs rather than more permanent structures like later cultures.  Their presence here is marked by petroglyphs and pictographs with a distinctive style, referred to as Fremont style.  No one knows for sure what became of them, but it is likely they merged with other cultures in the area.