Dinosaur Bones Stir New Interest In Musselshell County

New excitement is stirring in Musselshell County. Dinosaur bones were discovered when Eric Eliasson was out doing his usual rockhounding. Eric had a couple of contacts who connected him with Thomas Hebert. Thomas is the founder of a non-profit organization called Earth Sciences Foundation Inc. which can be found at http://www.letsdig.org. He came to Montana to meet with Eric and look at the fossils, from there the possibilities began to emerge for something big, very big, Jurassic in fact.

My coworker Nancy and I met Thomas for an interview. Thomas has so much information and knowledge that he speaks fast to get it all out. I had to record it in order to take it all in. After an hour of conversation, and four pages of notes from our conversation, I present to you a big, new, old-world development happening in our county, that may "rock" our world.

He is hoping to bring the "Dinosaur Trail" to Musselshell County. The trail is a statewide route across Montana with 14 dinosaur themed stops. Through the discovery of bones, with permission from two local ranches already, Thomas has secured years of digging. Through his non-profit organization Earth Sciences Foundation Inc. (www.letsdig.org). Thomas has brought the opportunities for Roundup to explore, grow, create tourism, and provide educational opportunities in various earth science fields such as geology, sedimentology, mining, land surveying, map making, studying fossils, as well as adding to our already great, local Museum.

Since coming to town, Earth Sciences Foundation Inc., with the help of the museum group, has secured grant money from Signal Peak for expanding the museum to provide room for the fossils. Thomas has spoken at both the high school and grade school in Roundup, and the organization created a Memorial Day dig for Veterans. Ten people from around the states came to Roundup, stayed in local motels, ate local food, and went digging.

You might say that the grass has not grown under his feet. This man is motivated.

Thomas is from Wisconsin, he spent twenty years as an insurance agent when he took his daughters out to dig dinosaurs for the first time in South Dakota. He fell in love with digging. He sold his business and told his wife that he wanted to go back to school and dig dinosaurs for the rest of his life. He went to college and has been pursuing his dream ever since. This is the concise version of events that led him here.

While he was in school, he came up with an idea to map dinosaur dig sites using sub-centimeter GNSS Carlson Software equipment. Basically, a plan that will accurately map dinosaur sights, bones, and artifacts. Current paleontologists take handwritten measurements and make personal sketched diagrams, and it can be really hard to tell on their diagrams what is all there. His equipment will tell what the bones are, where they are, latitude, longitude, elevation, species, everything about it. They are integrating a technology called XRF which will give a chemical analysis of the bone and tell all the elements that are in the bone. Signal Peak is here because there is coal. There is coal because one time Montana was a swamp, it was even once an ocean. When the Rocky Mountains emerged, the river channels and deltas, like New Orleans, formed. Those types of environments washed the bones out in river currents and deposited them here, after being buried and fossilized.

Thomas says the foundation will have an intern coming from Cal-tec in California working on his PHD in Stratigraphy, who will do all the stratigraphic work. He will give talks about different layers and give a geologic time picture from an environmental standpoint. Also, interns from Wisconsin are coming out focusing on chemistry and mapping.

The foundation's goal for finding all of these fossils is to put as much into our local museum as possible. "We will work with other landowners and take the remaining bones and sell them to other museums. That is how we will get some of the money for the non-profit, Earth Sciences Foundation Inc.". By raising funds and generous donations the foundation is able to help spread the experiences of Earth sciences to the community, young children, and veterans.

The foundation loves having the opportunity to bring veterans out to dig. Speaking with veterans, the foundation has learned that it is a beneficial tool for transitioning veterans that are retiring out of military service and equally as useful to veterans suffering from PTSD. It gives the foundation the opportunity to show them what kinds of fields are available in earth science, as well as give them the opportunity to get away from stress and decompress for a few days in the beautiful open outdoors. This is also an opportunity for school children and anyone to have an opportunity to do something like this, and see something they have never seen, touch a fossil that has never been touched by any human before.

The ultimate goal is to get community members, youth, and military vets involved, but also to raise the whole community up. Dinosaurs are a big attraction; people are going to come see them. If Roundup can be on the dinosaur trail, it will increase the opportunity for tourism and everything that is included. Motels, restaurants, and gift shops could all gain new life in our small town, with opportunity for even more growth. There can be a lot of job opportunities that can piggy-back off of the digging venture too. For example, Morgan from Big Sky Motel did a study and there are 5,500 vehicles that go through Main Street. This number offers a big opportunity for more stops in our town.

The group is looking forward to doing some big events in town. Hopefully they can begin this summer with speakers to talk about the digs, invite vendors, and organize day trips for digging. Every year will feature a new dinosaur and will have special information, digging, and collectables. This will hopefully create a reason for people to come here and to revisit next year.

"Never have I seen a community that has rallied behind an idea as quickly as they have this one and truly supports it. It is going to be exciting to see how this town changes in the next few years with what we are hoping to do." Thanks goes out to Rob Gustafson, of Energi Systems, who has given the organization the use of the main street building.

If people find something that they think might be a fossil, they need to document where they found it (or even take a picture and bring it to the foundation), this helps to determine more definitely the kind of rock that it comes from. "We look for an outcrop of rock without vegetation, then at the types of soil and types of rock, generally looking for sandstones and limestones, iron concretions and clay balls depending on depositional environment at the time. If there are big boulders in there, there are often big bones in as well," says Thomas. "For people that are curious, contact us, let us know. We can determine the fossils that might be in your area."

If you are interested in coming and digging, working in the prep lab, or are interested in helping, go to http://www.letsdig.org hit the contact button, send a message telling what you would like to do, that message comes directly to the foundation, and they will get you set up.