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{{Infobox NRHP
{{Infobox_protected_area | name = Dinosaur National Monument
| name = Dinosaur National Monument
| iucn_category = III
| nrhp_type = nmon
| image = US_Locator_Blank.svg
| image = DNM Morrison.jpg
| caption =
| caption = Multicolored beds of the Brushy Basin Member of the [[Morrison Formation]] near Carnegie Quarry
| locator_x = 76
| location = [[Moffat County, Colorado]] / [[Uintah County, Utah]], [[United States|US]]
| locator_y = 71
| nearest_city = [[Vernal, Utah]]
| location = [[Utah]] and [[Colorado]], [[United States|USA]]
| nearest_city = [[Vernal, Utah|Vernal, UT]]
| lat_degrees = 40
| lat_degrees = 40
| lat_minutes = 32
| lat_minutes = 32
| lat_seconds =
| lat_direction = N
| lat_direction = N
| long_degrees = 108
| long_degrees = 108
| long_minutes = 59
| long_minutes = 59
| long_seconds =
| long_direction = W
| long_direction = W
| locmapin = Colorado
| area = 204,000 acres (826 km²)
| area = {{convert|210844|acre|ha}}
| established = [[October 4]], [[1915]]
| designated_nrhp_type = October 4, 1915<ref name=stats>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/dino/parkmgmt/statistics.htm|title=Dinosaur National Monument Statistics|date=January 11, 2008|publisher=[[National Park Service|NPS]]|accessdate=2009-03-21}}</ref>
| visitation_num =
| visitation_num = 360,584
| visitation_year =
| visitation_year =2005
| mpsub = Dinosaur National Monument '''M'''ultiple '''R'''esource '''A'''rea ('''MRA''')
| refnum = n/a (the Monument is an [[National Register of Historic Places#Multiple Property Submission|MRA]])
| governing_body = U.S. [[National Park Service]]
| governing_body = U.S. [[National Park Service]]
}}
}}


'''Dinosaur National Monument''' is a [[U.S. National Monument]] located on the southeast flank of the [[Uinta Mountains]] on the border between the [[United States|American]] states of [[Colorado]] and [[Utah]] at the confluence of the [[Green River (Utah)|Green]] and [[Yampa River|Yampa]] Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in [[Moffat County, Colorado]], the ''Dinosaur Quarry'' is located in Utah just to the north of the town of [[Jensen, Utah]]. The ''[[Dinosaur]] wall'' located within the Dinosaur Quarry building in the park consists of a steeply tilted (67° from the horizontal) [[Rock (geology)|rock]] [[stratum|layer]] which contains hundreds of dinosaur [[fossil]]s. The enclosing rock has been chipped away to reveal the fossil bones intact for public viewing. In July 2006, the Quarry Visitor Center was closed indefinitely due to structural problems that have plagued the building since it was built on unstable clay in 1957. The nearest communities are [[Vernal, Utah]] and [[Dinosaur, Colorado]].
'''Dinosaur National Monument''' is a [[U.S. National Monument]] located on the southeast flank of the [[Uinta Mountains]] on the border between [[Colorado]] and [[Utah]] at the confluence of the [[Green River (Utah)|Green]] and [[Yampa River]]s. Although most of the monument area is in [[Moffat County, Colorado]], the ''Dinosaur Quarry'' {{coord|40|26|29|N|109|18|04|W}} is located in Utah just to the north of the town of [[Jensen, Utah]].


The nearest communities are [[Vernal, Utah]] and [[Dinosaur, Colorado]]. This park contains over 800 paleontological sites and has fossils of [[dinosaur]]s including ''[[Allosaurus]]'', ''[[Deinonychus]]'', ''[[Abydosaurus]]'' (a nearly complete skull, lower jaws and first four neck vertebrae of the specimen DINO 16488 found here at the base of the [[Mussentuchit Member]] of the [[Cedar Mountain Formation]] is the [[holotype]] for the description) and various long-neck, long-tail sauropods. It was declared a National Monument on October 4, 1915.<ref name=stats/>
The rock layer enclosing the fossils is a [[sandstone]] and [[conglomerate (geology)|conglomerate]] bed of [[alluvial]] or river bed origin known as the [[Morrison Formation]] from the [[Jurassic]] Period some 150 million years old. The dinosaurs and other ancient animals were washed into the area and buried presumably during flooding events. The pile of sediments were later buried and lithified into solid rock. The rock layers were later uplifted and tilted to their present angle by the mountain building forces theat formed the Uintas. The relentless forces of [[erosion]] exposed the layers at the surface to be found by paleontologists.


{{TOC left|limit=2}}
The dinosaur fossil beds were discovered in 1909 by [[Earl Douglass]], a [[paleontologist]] working and collecting for the [[Carnegie Museum]]. He excavated thousands of fossils and shipped them back to the museum in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]] for study and display. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] proclaimed the dinosaur beds as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915. The monument boundaries were expanded in 1938 from the original 80-acre tract surrounding the dinosaur quarry in Utah, to its present extent of over 200,000 acres (800 km²) in Utah and Colorado, encompassing the spectacular river canyons of the Green and Yampa.


==Geology==
Though lesser-known than the fossil beds, the [[petroglyph]]s in Dinosaur National Monument are another treasure the monument holds. Due to problems with vandals, many of the sites are not listed on area maps.
The rock layer enclosing the fossils is a [[sandstone]] and [[conglomerate (geology)|conglomerate]] bed of [[alluvial]] or river bed origin known as the [[Morrison Formation]] from the [[Jurassic]] Period some 150 million years old. The dinosaurs and other ancient animals were carried by the river system which eventually entombed their remains.


The pile of sediments were later buried and lithified into solid rock. The layers of rock were later uplifted and tilted to their present angle by the mountain building forces that formed the Uintas during the [[Laramide orogeny]] . The relentless forces of [[erosion]] exposed the layers at the surface to be found by paleontologists.
[[Image:Dinosaur National Monument-inside the Dinosaur Quarry building.jpeg|left|thumb|250px|Workers inside the Dinosaur Quarry building]]


==History==
==Echo Park Dam controversy==


===Early scientific explorations===
[[United States Bureau of Reclamation|U.S. Bureau of Reclamation]] plans for a ten-dam, billion dollar [[Colorado River Storage Project]] began to arouse opposition in the early 1950s when it was announced that one of the proposed dams would be at [[Echo Park (Colorado)|Echo Park]], in the middle of Dinosaur National Monument. The controversy assumed major proportions, dominating conservation politics for years. [[David Brower]], executive director of the [[Sierra Club]], and [[Howard Zahniser]] of The Wilderness Society led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve the free-flowing rivers and scenic canyons of the Green and Yampa Rivers. If even a national monument was not safe from development, they reasoned, how could any wildland be kept intact?
The dinosaur fossil beds ([[bone bed]]s) were discovered in 1909 by [[Earl Douglass]], a [[paleontologist]] working and collecting for the [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History]].<ref name = "douglass">{{Cite web
| title = Speak to the earth and it will teach you : the life and times of Earl Douglass, 1862-1931 (Book, 2009) [WorldCat.org]
| accessdate = 2011-10-13
| url = http://www.worldcat.org/title/speak-to-the-earth-and-it-will-teach-you-the-life-and-times-of-earl-douglass-1862-1931/oclc/460630935&referer=brief_results
}}</ref> He and his crews excavated thousands of [[fossils]] and shipped them back to the museum in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]] for study and display. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] proclaimed the dinosaur beds as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} The monument boundaries were expanded in 1938 from the original {{convert|80|acre|m2|sing=on}} tract surrounding the dinosaur quarry in Utah, to its present extent of over 200,000 acres (800&nbsp;km²) in Utah and Colorado, encompassing the spectacular river canyons of the [[Green River (Utah)|Green]] and [[Yampa River|Yampa]].{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}


Though lesser-known than the fossil beds, the [[petroglyph]]s in Dinosaur National Monument are another treasure the monument holds. Due to problems with vandals, many of the sites are not listed on area maps. {{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}
On the other side of the argument were powerful members of [[United States Congress|Congress]] from western states, who were committed to the Colorado River Storage Project in order to secure water rights, obtain cheap [[hydroelectric power]] and develop [[Reservoir (water)|reservoirs]] as tourist destinations. After much debate, Congress settled on a compromise that eliminated Echo Park Dam and authorized the rest of the project. The Colorado River Storage Project Act became law on [[April 11]], [[1956]]. It stated, “that no dam or reservoir constructed under the authorization of the Act shall be within any National Park or Monument.”


=== Echo Park Dam Controversy ===
Historians view the Echo Park Dam controversy as signaling the start of an era that includes major conservationist political successes such as the [[Wilderness Act]] and the [[Wild and Scenic Rivers Act]].
{{main|Echo Park Dam}}
[[United States Bureau of Reclamation|U.S. Bureau of Reclamation]] plans for a ten-dam, billion dollar [[Colorado River Storage Project]] began to arouse opposition in the early 1950s when it was announced that one of the proposed dams would be at [[Echo Park (Colorado)|Echo Park]], in the middle of Dinosaur National Monument. The controversy assumed major proportions, dominating conservation politics for years. [[David Brower]], executive director of the [[Sierra Club]], and [[Howard Zahniser]] of [[The Wilderness Society (United States)|The Wilderness Society]] led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve the free-flowing rivers and scenic canyons of the Green and Yampa Rivers. They argued that, if a national monument was not safe from development, how could any wildland be kept intact?{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}


On the other side of the argument were powerful members of [[United States Congress|Congress]] from western states, who were committed to the project in order to secure water rights, obtain cheap [[hydroelectric power]] and develop [[Reservoir (water)|reservoirs]] as tourist destinations. After much debate, Congress settled on a compromise that eliminated [[Echo Park Dam]] and authorized the rest of the project. The Colorado River Storage Project Act became law on April 11, 1956. It stated, “that no dam or reservoir constructed under the authorization of the Act shall be within any National Park or Monument.”{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}
[[Image:DinosaurNM1Panorama.jpg|thumb|655px|left|none|Green River Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument]]

Historians view the Echo Park Dam controversy as signaling the start of an era that includes major conservationist political successes such as the [[Wilderness Act]] and the [[Wild and Scenic Rivers Act]].{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} [[Image:DinosaurNM1Panorama.jpg|thumb|600px|none|Green River Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument]]

=== Historic places ===
Places on the list of National Register of Historic Places include:<ref>
[http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/co/Moffat/state.html ''National Register of Historic Places in Moffat County''] American Dreams, Inc. Retrieved 2011-10-6.</ref>
:'''[[Prehistory of Colorado#Indigenous peoples' sites in Colorado|Prehistoric sites]]'''
:* Castle Park Archeological District, a prehistoric residential site with inhabition during 1500 - 1000 BC and again from AD 1000 - 1899 by the Prehistoric [[Fremont culture]], [[Ute people|Ute]] and [[Shoshone people]].
:* [[Mantle's Cave]] is a prehistoric [[Fremont culture]] residential site from 499 BC - AD 1749.
:'''Other sites'''
:* [[Denis Julien Inscription (Moffat County, Colorado)|Denis Julien Inscription]]
:* [[Rial Chew Ranch Complex]]
:* [[Upper Wade and Curtis Cabin]]

==Climate==
The Dinosaur National Monument sits on a vast area of desert land in Northwestern Colorado and Northeastern Utah. Typical of "high deserts", summer temperatures can be exceedingly hot, while winter temperatures can be very cold. Snowfall is common, but the snow melts rapidly in the arid and sunny climates of these states. Rainfall is very low, and the evaporation rate classifies the area as desert, even though the rainfall just barely exceeds 10&nbsp;inches.

{{Weather box
|location = Dinosaur National Monument
|single line = Yes
|Jan high F = 33.0
|Feb high F = 39.0
|Mar high F = 50.4
|Apr high F = 60.8
|May high F = 71.9
|Jun high F = 83.2
|Jul high F = 90.5
|Aug high F = 87.9
|Sep high F = 77.7
|Oct high F = 63.6
|Nov high F = 45.7
|Dec high F = 34.2
|year high F = 61.5
|Jan low F = 10.8
|Feb low F = 15.2
|Mar low F = 25.0
|Apr low F = 31.8
|May low F = 40.5
|Jun low F = 48.9
|Jul low F = 56.6
|Aug low F = 54.7
|Sep low F = 45.5
|Oct low F = 34.9
|Nov low F = 23.3
|Dec low F = 12.7
|year low F = 33.3
|Jan precipitation inch = 0.64
|Feb precipitation inch = 0.56
|Mar precipitation inch = 0.88
|Apr precipitation inch = 1.17
|May precipitation inch = 1.30
|Jun precipitation inch = 1.06
|Jul precipitation inch = 1.01
|Aug precipitation inch = 0.89
|Sep precipitation inch = 1.24
|Oct precipitation inch = 1.46
|Nov precipitation inch = 0.80
|Dec precipitation inch = 0.62
|year precipitation inch = 11.64
|Jan snow inch = 9.2
|Feb snow inch = 6.6
|Mar snow inch = 5.9
|Apr snow inch = 3.5
|May snow inch = 0.7
|Jun snow inch = 0.2
|Jul snow inch = 0.0
|Aug snow inch = 0.0
|Sep snow inch = 0.2
|Oct snow inch = 1.6
|Nov snow inch = 4.7
|Dec snow inch = 8.3
|year snow inch = 41.1
|source 1 = http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmco.html <ref>http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?codino</ref>
|date=April 2011
}}

== Features ==

===The Quarry===
The "Wall of Bones" located within the Dinosaur Quarry building in the park consists of a steeply tilted (67° from horizontal) [[Rock (geology)|rock]] [[stratum|layer]] which contains hundreds of [[dinosaur]] [[fossil]]s. The enclosing rock has been chipped away to reveal the fossil bones intact for public viewing. In July 2006, the [[Quarry Visitor Center]] was closed due to structural problems that since 1957 had plagued the building because it was built on unstable clay. The decision was made to build a new facility elsewhere in the monument to house the visitor center and administrative functions, making it easier to resolve the structural problems of the quarry building while still retaining a portion of the historic [[Mission 66]] era exhibit hall.<ref>{{cite web | title =Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Quarry Visitor Center, Part 1 | publisher =National Park Service |date=March 2007 | url =http://parkplanning.nps.gov/showFile.cfm?projectId=10847&docType=public&MIMEType=application%252Fpdf&filename=DINOQVCpublicreview%5Fpost1%2Epdf&clientFilename=DINOQVCpublicreview%5Fpost1%2Epdf | format =PDF | accessdate =2008-02-11}}</ref> It was announced in April 2009 that Dinosaur National Monument would receive $13.1 million to refurbish and reopen the gallery as part of the Obama administration's $750 billion stimulus plan.<ref>{{cite web | title =$13.1M in stimulus cash revives dino monument | publisher =Salt Lake Tribune |date=April 2009 | url =http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_12200345?source=rv | accessdate =2009-04-23}}</ref> The Park Service successfully rebuilt the Quarry Exhibit Hall, supporting its weight on 70-foot steel micropile columns that extend to the bedrock below the unstable clay.<ref>{{cite web | title =Visiting The Quarry In Fall And Winter | publisher =National Park Service |date=November 2011 | url =http://www.nps.gov/dino/quarry-visitor-center-update.htm | accessdate =2012-03-21}}</ref> The Dinosaur Quarry was reopened in Fall 2011.

===Vertebrate Fossils from Carnegie Quarry===
[[Image:Dinosaur National Monument-inside the Dinosaur Quarry building.jpeg|thumb||Workers inside the Dinosaur Quarry building]]
[[Image:DinosaurHumerusBoneByPhilKonstantin.jpg|thumb|Young girl pointing at a dinosaur's humerus bone on the Fossil Discovery Trail]]
[[Image:Dino vertebrae.jpg|thumb|right|Paleontologist carefully chips rock matrix from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. These bones were left in place in the Dinosaur Quarry display.]]

:Now enclosed by the Dinosaur Quarry building (Gilmore (1936), Foster (2003))

{{div col|2}}
;Reptilia
:Testudines
::Amphichelydia
:::''[[Glyptops]] plicatus''
:::''[[Dinochelys]] whitei''
:Rhynchocephalia
:::''[[Opisthias]] rarus''
:Crocodilia
::Mesosuchia
:::Gonipholididae
::::''[[Goniopholis]]'' sp.
:::Atoposauridae
::::''[[Hoplosuchus]] kayi'' (h)
;Dinosauria
:Saurischia
::Theropoda
:::''[[Ceratosaurus]]'' sp.
:::''[[Torvosaurus]]'' sp.
:::''[[Allosaurus]] fragilis''
::Sauropoda
:::''[[Apatosaurus]] louisae'' (h)
:::''[[Barosaurus]] lentus''
:::''[[Camarasaurus]] lentus''
:::''[[Diplodocus]] "longus"''
:::?''[[Haplocanthosaurus]]'' sp.
:::''[[Uintasaurus]] douglassi'' (h) (now ''Camarasaurus lentus'')
:Ornithischia
::Stegosauria
:::''[[Stegosaurus]]'' sp.
::Ornithopoda
:::Iguanodontia
::::''[[Uteodon]] aphanoecetes'' (h)
:::Dryosauridae
::::''[[Dryosaurus]] altus''
{{div col end}}

:(h) = holotype

==See also==
* [[Pycnodontoidea]]


==References==
==References==
* Cosco, Jon M. 1995. ''Echo Park: Struggle for Preservation''. Johnson Books. ISBN 1-55566-140-8
*Mark W.T. Harvey, ''A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement'' (University of Washington Press, 2000) ISBN 0-295-97932-1
* Foster, John R. 2003. Paleoecological analysis of the vertebrate fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain region, USA. ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science'' 23:1-95
*Jon M. Cosco, ''Echo Park: Struggle for Preservation'' (Johnson Books, 1995) ISBN 1-55566-140-8
* [[Charles W. Gilmore|Gilmore, Charles W.]] 1936. Osteology of ''Apatosaurus'', with special references to specimens in the Carnegie Museum. ''Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum'' 11(4): 177-294.
* Harvey, Mark W.T. 2000. ''A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement''. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97932-1

=== Notes ===
{{reflist|2}}
{{clear}}


==External links==
==External links==
{{sister project links}}
{{Commonscat|Dinosaur National Monument}}
*[http://www.nps.gov/dino Dinosaur National Monument official park site]
*[http://www.nps.gov/dino Dinosaur National Monument] (National Park Service)
*[http://www.nps.gov/dino/dinos.htm National Park Service Douglass Quarry]
*[http://www.nps.gov/dino/dinos.htm National Park Service Douglass Quarry]
*[http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/dinosaur/national_monument.html Dinosaur National Monument]
*[http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/dinosaur/national_monument.html Dinosaur National Monument]
*[http://www.frankstehno.com/sagemesa/destinations/colorado/dinosaur/dinointro.htm Canyon Country Hiking and Camping Notebook: Dinosaur National Monument]
*[http://www.frankstehno.com/sagemesa/destinations/colorado/dinosaurnm/dnmintro.htm Canyon Country Hiking and Camping Notebook: Dinosaur National Monument]
*{{HABS |surveyUT-138 |id=ut0701 |title=Quarry Visitor Center, U.S. Highway 40, 8 miles north of Jensen, Jensen, Uintah County, UT |photos=42 |color= |dwgs= |data=86 |cap=3}}


{{Protected Areas of Colorado}}
{{UT Parks}}
{{UT Parks}}
{{Registered Historic Places}}


[[Category:Geography of Colorado]]
[[Category:Dinosaur National Monument| ]]
[[Category:Moffat County, Colorado]]
[[Category:Fossil parks in the United States]]
[[Category:Geography of Utah]]
[[Category:Dinosaur museums in the United States]]
[[Category:Uintah County, Utah]]
[[Category:Natural history museums in Utah]]
[[Category:National Monuments of the United States]]
[[Category:Museums in Uintah County, Utah]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in the United States]]
[[Category:Morrison Formation]]
[[Category:Jurassic Colorado]]
[[Category:Jurassic geology of Utah]]
[[Category:Jurassic paleontological sites of North America]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Uintah County, Utah]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Moffat County, Colorado]]
[[Category:Landmarks in Colorado]]
[[Category:Landmarks in Colorado]]
[[Category:Environmental controversies]]

[[Category:Sierra Club]]
[[de:Dinosaur National Monument]]
[[Category:1915 establishments in the United States]]
[[fr:Dinosaur National Monument]]
[[Category:Protected areas established in 1915]]
[[Category:Paleontology in Utah]]
[[Category:Paleontology in Colorado]]

Revision as of 00:36, 13 September 2015

Dinosaur National Monument
Multicolored beds of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation near Carnegie Quarry
Dinosaur National Monument is located in Colorado
Dinosaur National Monument
LocationMoffat County, Colorado / Uintah County, Utah, US
Nearest cityVernal, Utah
Area210,844 acres (85,326 ha)
Visitation360,584 (2005)
MPSDinosaur National Monument Multiple Resource Area (MRA)
NRHP reference No.n/a (the Monument is an MRA)
Designated NMONOctober 4, 1915[1]

Dinosaur National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry 40°26′29″N 109°18′04″W / 40.44139°N 109.30111°W / 40.44139; -109.30111 is located in Utah just to the north of the town of Jensen, Utah.

The nearest communities are Vernal, Utah and Dinosaur, Colorado. This park contains over 800 paleontological sites and has fossils of dinosaurs including Allosaurus, Deinonychus, Abydosaurus (a nearly complete skull, lower jaws and first four neck vertebrae of the specimen DINO 16488 found here at the base of the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation is the holotype for the description) and various long-neck, long-tail sauropods. It was declared a National Monument on October 4, 1915.[1]

Geology

The rock layer enclosing the fossils is a sandstone and conglomerate bed of alluvial or river bed origin known as the Morrison Formation from the Jurassic Period some 150 million years old. The dinosaurs and other ancient animals were carried by the river system which eventually entombed their remains.

The pile of sediments were later buried and lithified into solid rock. The layers of rock were later uplifted and tilted to their present angle by the mountain building forces that formed the Uintas during the Laramide orogeny . The relentless forces of erosion exposed the layers at the surface to be found by paleontologists.

History

Early scientific explorations

The dinosaur fossil beds (bone beds) were discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass, a paleontologist working and collecting for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.[2] He and his crews excavated thousands of fossils and shipped them back to the museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for study and display. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the dinosaur beds as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915.[citation needed] The monument boundaries were expanded in 1938 from the original 80-acre (320,000 m2) tract surrounding the dinosaur quarry in Utah, to its present extent of over 200,000 acres (800 km²) in Utah and Colorado, encompassing the spectacular river canyons of the Green and Yampa.[citation needed]

Though lesser-known than the fossil beds, the petroglyphs in Dinosaur National Monument are another treasure the monument holds. Due to problems with vandals, many of the sites are not listed on area maps. [citation needed]

Echo Park Dam Controversy

Main article: Echo Park Dam

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans for a ten-dam, billion dollar Colorado River Storage Project began to arouse opposition in the early 1950s when it was announced that one of the proposed dams would be at Echo Park, in the middle of Dinosaur National Monument. The controversy assumed major proportions, dominating conservation politics for years. David Brower, executive director of the Sierra Club, and Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve the free-flowing rivers and scenic canyons of the Green and Yampa Rivers. They argued that, if a national monument was not safe from development, how could any wildland be kept intact?[citation needed]

On the other side of the argument were powerful members of Congress from western states, who were committed to the project in order to secure water rights, obtain cheap hydroelectric power and develop reservoirs as tourist destinations. After much debate, Congress settled on a compromise that eliminated Echo Park Dam and authorized the rest of the project. The Colorado River Storage Project Act became law on April 11, 1956. It stated, “that no dam or reservoir constructed under the authorization of the Act shall be within any National Park or Monument.”[citation needed]

Historians view the Echo Park Dam controversy as signaling the start of an era that includes major conservationist political successes such as the Wilderness Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.[citation needed]

Green River Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument

Historic places

Places on the list of National Register of Historic Places include:[3]

Prehistoric sites
Other sites

Climate

The Dinosaur National Monument sits on a vast area of desert land in Northwestern Colorado and Northeastern Utah. Typical of "high deserts", summer temperatures can be exceedingly hot, while winter temperatures can be very cold. Snowfall is common, but the snow melts rapidly in the arid and sunny climates of these states. Rainfall is very low, and the evaporation rate classifies the area as desert, even though the rainfall just barely exceeds 10 inches.

Climate data for Dinosaur National Monument
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) 33.0
(0.6) 		39.0
(3.9) 		50.4
(10.2) 		60.8
(16.0) 		71.9
(22.2) 		83.2
(28.4) 		90.5
(32.5) 		87.9
(31.1) 		77.7
(25.4) 		63.6
(17.6) 		45.7
(7.6) 		34.2
(1.2) 		61.5
(16.4)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) 10.8
(−11.8) 		15.2
(−9.3) 		25.0
(−3.9) 		31.8
(−0.1) 		40.5
(4.7) 		48.9
(9.4) 		56.6
(13.7) 		54.7
(12.6) 		45.5
(7.5) 		34.9
(1.6) 		23.3
(−4.8) 		12.7
(−10.7) 		33.3
(0.7)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 0.64
(16) 		0.56
(14) 		0.88
(22) 		1.17
(30) 		1.30
(33) 		1.06
(27) 		1.01
(26) 		0.89
(23) 		1.24
(31) 		1.46
(37) 		0.80
(20) 		0.62
(16) 		11.64
(296)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 9.2
(23) 		6.6
(17) 		5.9
(15) 		3.5
(8.9) 		0.7
(1.8) 		0.2
(0.51) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.2
(0.51) 		1.6
(4.1) 		4.7
(12) 		8.3
(21) 		41.1
(104)
Source: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmco.html [4]

Features

The Quarry

The "Wall of Bones" located within the Dinosaur Quarry building in the park consists of a steeply tilted (67° from horizontal) rock layer which contains hundreds of dinosaur fossils. The enclosing rock has been chipped away to reveal the fossil bones intact for public viewing. In July 2006, the Quarry Visitor Center was closed due to structural problems that since 1957 had plagued the building because it was built on unstable clay. The decision was made to build a new facility elsewhere in the monument to house the visitor center and administrative functions, making it easier to resolve the structural problems of the quarry building while still retaining a portion of the historic Mission 66 era exhibit hall.[5] It was announced in April 2009 that Dinosaur National Monument would receive $13.1 million to refurbish and reopen the gallery as part of the Obama administration's $750 billion stimulus plan.[6] The Park Service successfully rebuilt the Quarry Exhibit Hall, supporting its weight on 70-foot steel micropile columns that extend to the bedrock below the unstable clay.[7] The Dinosaur Quarry was reopened in Fall 2011.

Vertebrate Fossils from Carnegie Quarry

Workers inside the Dinosaur Quarry building
Young girl pointing at a dinosaur's humerus bone on the Fossil Discovery Trail
Paleontologist carefully chips rock matrix from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. These bones were left in place in the Dinosaur Quarry display.
Now enclosed by the Dinosaur Quarry building (Gilmore (1936), Foster (2003))
Reptilia
Testudines
Amphichelydia
Glyptops plicatus
Dinochelys whitei
Rhynchocephalia
Opisthias rarus
Crocodilia
Mesosuchia
Gonipholididae
Goniopholis sp.
Atoposauridae
Hoplosuchus kayi (h)
Dinosauria
Saurischia
Theropoda
Ceratosaurus sp.
Torvosaurus sp.
Allosaurus fragilis
Sauropoda
Apatosaurus louisae (h)
Barosaurus lentus
Camarasaurus lentus
Diplodocus "longus"
?Haplocanthosaurus sp.
Uintasaurus douglassi (h) (now Camarasaurus lentus)
Ornithischia
Stegosauria
Stegosaurus sp.
Ornithopoda
Iguanodontia
Uteodon aphanoecetes (h)
Dryosauridae
Dryosaurus altus
(h) = holotype

See also

References

  • Cosco, Jon M. 1995. Echo Park: Struggle for Preservation. Johnson Books. ISBN 1-55566-140-8
  • Foster, John R. 2003. Paleoecological analysis of the vertebrate fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain region, USA. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science 23:1-95
  • Gilmore, Charles W. 1936. Osteology of Apatosaurus, with special references to specimens in the Carnegie Museum. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum 11(4): 177-294.
  • Harvey, Mark W.T. 2000. A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97932-1

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Dinosaur National Monument Statistics". NPS. January 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  2. ^ "Speak to the earth and it will teach you : the life and times of Earl Douglass, 1862-1931 (Book, 2009) [WorldCat.org]". Retrieved 2011-10-13.
  3. ^ National Register of Historic Places in Moffat County American Dreams, Inc. Retrieved 2011-10-6.
  4. ^ http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?codino
  5. ^ "Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Quarry Visitor Center, Part 1" (PDF). National Park Service. March 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  6. ^ "$13.1M in stimulus cash revives dino monument". Salt Lake Tribune. April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  7. ^ "Visiting The Quarry In Fall And Winter". National Park Service. November 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
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