Est. June 3, 1961
Experience Life Three Billion Years In The Making January 2018
Raptor Review
Issue 49
A quarterly publication for your information and enjoyment From the Director By Dr. Ken Carpenter
It is hard to believe that the end of the year is already upon us. It has been a very productive year for the staff as you can read in these pages. We continue our tradition of featuring family day activities, especially during Prehistoric Week and Cretaceous Christmas. The community has responded favorably, with attendance for Family Day in May breaking all records, with over 530 visitors. In the Paleontology Hall, four new exhibits opened, including one on geological time, another covering the first four billion years of eastern Utah's geologic history, another featuring life stomping around southeastern Utah 299-250 million years ago, and Exhibit covering the first four billion years the Gooseneck of Eastern Utah’s geological history. Allosaurus, nicknamed because of its curved neck. In the Archaeology Hall, we finally finished the Five Kiva exhibit, including a part of a cliff dwelling apartment in full size so you can get a better feel for what life was Finished Five Kiva exhibit, which just like for the Anopened. cestral Puebloans (Anasazi). In the changing gallery, we featured a temporary photographic exhibit, Lost Trackways, of photogenic dinosaur footprints in the Glenn Canyon area.
Currently we are featuring another temporary exhibit, Clubs, Horns and Shields. This show has been extended through January 15. We are already at Five Kivas updated diorama. work on our next big exhibit renovation: the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Pit. We will expand on the biology of the dinosaurs with a discussion of brain size (did you know the brain of Allosaurus was bigger than that of Stegosaurus?), feature dinosaur eggs and babies and growing up. Besides dinosaurs, we will have fossil plants, part of a 150 million year old ant nest, and a large mural that shows what the ancient environment looked like. The museum had its annual Cretaceous Christmas, with over 460 visitors. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a success, especially Santa 'Dave'. The museum’s webpage got a major overhaul thanks to Tracey Johnson of USU Eastern. Hopefully you'll find the new look appealing. I thank all of you for your membership and support of the museum. Watch for all the Cretaceous Christmas with a visit from continuing changthe jolly old elf himself. es the rest of the year.
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Castle Country Cultures By Dr. Tim Riley
As I reflect on the past year’s activities from my perch on the second floor of the Hall of Archaeology, I am struck by the physical changes to the Hall as well as the developments in research and collections. In the Hall, we finished an ambitious suite of exhibits highlighting the Ancestral Puebloan farmers spread across southern Utah. We are grateful to Jonathan Till at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum for his help. This exhibit is part of the ongoing plan to arrange the first floor of the Hall into a timeline from the end of the Ice Age until Spanish exploration. We have one last time period left to complete this project, so stay tuned for continuing changes in the Hall. I wrapped up my fieldwork at the Martinez pithouse site this fall. As you can see from the before and after picture, we moved a lot of dirt to explore the life of a Fremont family living along the Grassy Trail Creek a thousand years ago. I enjoyed getting to share this site with some of you at the Member’s Only tour this fall as well as at the Member’s Appreciation Dinner in December.
I was also involved with a field project at Cottonwood Village in Nine Mile Canyon this fall. Over the course of 6 weekends, student volunteers from three schools and adults from all over the state excavated half of a pithouse at this site. It was a great experience to guide these students in this excavation, watching as they developed confidence in their abilities and seeing the excitement of discovery as they explored the past. I will work with some of these students again this winter as we process the recovered artifacts in the lab for research and long-term curation. As I detailed in an earlier newsletter, our experimental pithouse burn this spring was a roaring success. But the destruction of a house is only the beginning of an archaeological site. I have started excavating parts of the structure and will continue this project into 2018. We appreciate your membership over this past year and look forward to sharing eastern Utah’s Prehistory with you in 2018. Collection of the Year While I normally focus on a single artifact for each newsletter, I wanted to end this year by recognizing the donation of the Ephraim P. and Dorothy Hickman Pectol collection to the museum. These rare and perishable objects, found along the Fremont River a century ago, offer an unparalleled opportunity to share the story of human prehistory in eastern Utah with all of our visitors. The museum is indebted to the descendant families for this incredible gift.
Julie Howard, Capitol Reef Archaeologist, and members of the Pectol family examine a painted leather sash found along the Fremont River.
Photo of the Martinez Pithouse showing it before and after excavation.
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Events & Information
Secrets from the Vault
By Shailetia Reiswig
By Katy Corneli
Members came to the 7th Annual Members Appreciation Dinner at the new Central Instruction Building where they were treated by a meal by the wonderful USU dinning staff, while they listened to a presentation from Curator Dr. Tim Riley about his work this year on the Martinez pithouse site. We also had our 2nd Annual Cocktails with the Curators event held for our Utahraptor and Allosaurus members, where Director Dr. Kenneth Carpenter gave a presentation about his research How to Fossilize a Dinosaur. Members have the benefit of 33% discount on classroom rental fees, which includes the admission for your guests. Our classroom has been very popular for birthday gatherings of young dinosaur enthusiasts! We hope you consider us, especially for these cold winter days. If you have any questions, about your membership, or how to book the classroom, please contact Shai Reiswig by phone at 435-613-5755, email at shai. reiswig@usu.edu, or in person.
Greetings to our members, both old and new. Thank you for continuing to support the Prehistoric Museum. Our work would not be possible without you and last year in collections we are proud to list some pretty significant accomplishments, including the acquisition and cataloging of the Pectol Collection (see the July newsletter). Another major goal for 2017 was to account for and locate every paleontological specimen in the museum. With the help of some dedicated volunteers, every room in storage and each display case was combed through and inventoried. There is still more to do, but we can now expect to have 100% accurate records for the paleontological collection by the end of 2018. All this went on alongside the everyday collections work, and other large ongoing projects, like the reconstruction of the large Olla, donated earlier in the year. Here a little overview of the year “by the numbers.�
Thank you again for your support. Here's wishing all the best to you and yours for 2018.
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Gift Shop By Jennifer Shorthill
“The world hates change yet it is the only thing that has brought progress!” Charles F. Kettering It’s 2018!!! Change is coming!! What a blessing to start a new year!! The Museum is very ex cited to see what the new year will bring! This past year, we have enjoyed listening to the wonderful patrons share their experiences and good times with us, while getting to know them better. I cannot think of anything better than creating incredible memories to treasure throughout your life. We have seen many new patrons and the returning of our faithful patrons too. We have had some incredible; new exhibits come to life by our wonderful Curators and staff. They are incredibly talented and put great effort into all the details of the exhibits. We hope you will continue to come and support us through visitation, membership, and shopping, of course. Is there someone you know who would like to receive a membership? Do you need to renew your membership? Come on in, and we can help you with this and many other things!! Planning a Birthday party? Come and reserve the classroom for your kids or grandchildren! Again, we are excited about the new year! 2018 will be filled with much excitement, good memories and times to be had!! Let us be a part of that! We are happy to serve you and we genuinely thank you for all your patronage!!
Exhibits By Sandra Budd
Winter Greetings from Exhibits, This first year at the museum felt very balanced working between the Special Exhibits Gallery and the Five Kiva exhibit. The Five Kiva was complex with many components each detail designed and built in-house. This exhibit is unique and gives an immersive experience for visitors of all ages and abilities. It was truly a collaborative project across the museum staff. This year we re-opened the entire second floor gallery to accommodate the Clubs Horns and Shields exhibit, which was one of the larger draws for the museum while the 5 Kiva was under construction. Thanks to Rob Gaston for making this his first venue. Exhibits participated in the Helper Arts Festival in the kid activity tent. Dave, Shai and I shared in the preparation of materials and worked through the weekend event.
Helper Arts Festival 2017
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This next year I look forward to renovating several paleontology exhibits with Ken and Dave. I hope to begin working on a new schedule of special exhibits for the gallery following The Ancient Skies photography exhibit. My goal is to make sure our special exhibits complement our mission as a natural history museum. I plan to upgrade our audio tour of exhibits so it is more consistent and up to date with the new exhibits. I hope to continue participation in the Helper Festival as our presence was greatly appreciated this past year. Lastly I will be seeking a couple workshop and conferences to keep abreast of current exhibit trends in the field. Special Exhibits Gallery Schedule Clubs, Horns and Shields closes January 16th gallery upgrade The Other Side of Utah February 3 - March 10 Submission of art: Monday, January 29th Reception: Friday, February 2 See full flyer on website Ancient Skies Through Ancient Eyes March 17 - October 28 Please contact me regarding any exhibits. Sandra.budd@usu.edu or 435.613.5760.
I see dead things.... By Dave Alderks
What happened to this year? It seems like yesterday it was just starting. The last part of this year I finished up field collecting from the summer and did it just before the first snowstorm hit Utah for the year. In October I was able to collect a Brontothere skull from the Uinta Basin, and while I was in the process of obtaining that one I found the second head about a Âź mile away, so I will need to go back to collect that one also. Then in November, when I was back out there, I found two more skulls and was able to collect one of them. It was found because of the impressive row of teeth sticking out of the sandstone while we were looking at a large boulder containing other fossil mammal bones. I also was able to collect more trilobite tracks from another location around eastern Utah and was grateful for the help of the volunteers, which allowed for the collection to be quick and painless. I tried to collect them by myself but was not able to due to their size.
This coming year will be a good one, with the plan to bring several new specimens to the museum. I plan to find and collect a Jurasic Ichthyosaur from the foothills of the Uinta Mountains, and finish collecting the skulls and postcranial elements of the mammals I left for the season in the Uinta Basin. Row of teeth found in the field this I have been invited past November. These teeth are in by a college to go on a skull that was collected and will a Triassic fossil hunt be prepared next year. around Bear Lake. This site has fossils from just after the Great Dying at the end of the Permian-Triassic boundary. These fossils represent the re-radiation of life in the ocean and contain many soft-bodied fossils. As for exhibits, I will be helping Ken and Sandra on the Cleaveland-Llyod Dinosaur pit. I will also be helping with the Trilobite exhibit, which includes the specimens collected the last two field seasons in the West Desert of Utah around Delta. I think we will also be working on the ocean of the Carboniferous Period. I feel that this next year will be the best one yet for collection and I am always looking for volunteers to help with field work and to help prepare the specimens we collect.
Volunteer opportunities Volunteers are always welcome here at the museum, and we will even take you into the field in Archaeology and Paleontology. You could be working on one of our cool projects. To volunteer, please contact one of us from the information below: Archaeology Tim.riley@usu.edu or 435.613.5280 Collections Katharine.Corneli@usu.edu or 435.613.5765 Paleontology Dave.alderks@usu.edu or 435.613.5756 Exhibits sandra.budd@usu.edu or 435.613.5760
Prehistoric Museum 155 East Main Street Price, Utah 84501 Visit us on the web at usueastern.edu/museum Local (435) 613-5060 Toll Free (800) 817-9949
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Inside This Edition
Editor/Layout Dave O. Alderks
Item From The Director Castle Country Cultures Events & Info Secrets from the Vault Gift Shop Exhibits I see dead things...
Page Cover 2 2 3 3 4 5
Advisory Board Ken Fleck-Chairman Tim Gwyther-Vice Chairman Mike Leschin Charles Semborski Maurine Tanner Mark Bunnell Andrew Urbanik Bruce Burgess Dennis Willis Terry Willis - Ex- Officio Advisor Brad King Don Burge-Founding Director Dr. Joe Peterson-Chancellor USU Eastern Dr. Kenneth Carpenter-Museum Director