Evanston Day 3

Excited to break some rocks!

We were really excited for today. A few years ago, we visited Fossil Butte National Monument and watched a video of workers prying apart layers of rock to find beautiful fish fossils. Today, we traveled to a commercial site where we got to hunt our own fossils. After some brief instructions, we were given gloves, a hammer, and a blade chisel. Then we went into the quarry. 

At first, we started with little rocks. We pushed our blades into the side and pounded until the rock opened. It was surprising, and very satisfying how perfectly the layers split. Sometimes you find some coprolite (fossilized poop), sometimes a fish or fish scales, and often, nothing. Occasionally, you'd peel back the layers in a rock and pretty much every layer yielded a fossil. We found a lot of small finger-sized fish. There were also several large fish. It was difficult to get a fish that wasn't chipped or broken, but we got a few great specimens. 

We found some amazing things right away.

Dad had a ton of fun.

Seth found this awesome fish.

Mark found some great ones, too!

Then Dax found something that we hadn't. It was a massive fossil that was buried under a very thin layer of rock. This is the kind that ends up in museums, because you take a small air dremel and chip away that layer. Dax is really excited because they are going to clean it professionally. They estimated the value at $1200 and said it is potentially "museum quality."

After we chipped out fossils for about two hours, we proceeded to the saws. The boys decided where they wanted cuts made, and Dad used the saw to cut away excess rock. Then we packed the rocks, probably 2-3 dozen, into the back of the van. We're not sure what we are going to do with 100 lbs of fish fossils, but we'll think of something. 

This find was cool since it had three in one.

One of Dax's great fish. 

We left the fossil site and found a park in Kemmerer. Mom whipped up some sandwiches for lunch while the boys tried to pound the dust out of their clothes. 

We have fun together, that is for sure!

We were so excited when we left Fossil Lake, that we decided to head over to the national monument. We found it completely remodeled since we'd been there last, and with our new knowledge of fossil hunting, we found it very interesting. Our favorite part was the large poop fossil display in the bathroom. 

Fossil Butte is hot and in the middle of nowhere.

The bathroom fossils are so funny!

The kids all teased Randy that this was when he was born.

It was a long drive from Fossil Butte all the way down to Fort Bridger. We got there in plenty of time of time to walk through each of the buildings and enjoy a huckleberry sucker from the trading post. There were more than a dozen buildings open, including several large homes to walk through. Though we'd visited before, we hadn't seen nearly as much of the site as we did this time.

This horse was a punishment horse.

But it made for great pics.

Everyone liked the jail.

Also makes for great pics.

There was a lot to see at Fort Bridger.

We had one more stop at a ghost town called Piedmont. This town is way out off the main road southwest of Fort Bridger. The roads were pretty rough, and we worried a little about our fossils jostling around too much, but we made it. There were four massive charcoal kilns that you could walk inside. There were also 8-10 ancient buildings, including 2 large houses that were still standing. This village was famous as a railroad stop, and both Calamity Jane and Butch Cassidy are said to have spent time in Piedmont. It was a fun site, despite the drive.

Inside the kilns

We like seeing the old historic things.

The ghost town buildings were super cool.

We always like exploring them.

This was the house that the cows obviously came into for shelter!

We saw a momma deer and her two babies out here!

Back in Evanston, we sat down for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Mark surprised us all by ordering some crab sushi to go with his meal. Seth ordered fried rice, which came in a mound that he could barely see over. Dax finished his entire teriyaki steak. This told us that we had had a full successful day.

Mark did well with the sushi.

The plate of fried rice was enormous.