1942 was an interesting time to be alive, World War II was in full force and resources in America were hard to come by, especially for a small Ozark family scratching out a living on a farm with more rocks than dirt.
Members of my family were digging a well by hand on their farm a couple of miles outside Glen Allen, Missouri. The prize they were seeking, water is not what the dry hole produced.... Instead they discovered strange looking rocks that would end up being the very first dinosaur fossils found in Missouri.
It took a lot of luck for you to hear this story. The family had to keep from damaging the strange looking rocks. Keep in mind a billon rocks dotted their farm, water their main focus they easily could have just tossed the rocks aside......
The next "lucky" thing to happen a couple hours later was a oil speculator came riding through on horseback and stopped to talk to the family. My family was looking for water, the rider was on the hunt for oil, neither found what they were looking for that day but together they shared with the world a major dinosaur discovery.
The fossils from 1942 are currently on display in Washington D.C. The family farm now belongs to a St. Louis university. I have not been back to the site in years, but as a kid it was a weekly visit. Talk about excitement, you should have been there the day a Sabre tooth tiger was discovered..... For a kid it was the ultimate thing to imagine that huge cat walking the same hills as me.
Are there really fossils laying on the ground? Sadly yes-- in the late 1960's a PhD determined the most valuable fossils were 5 to 10 feet below the surface and he had the top layer of soil/rocks bulldozed off. While he was correct in that the mother load of fossils was a few feet down, he failed to understand the damage he was doing to the dig.
For the next few decades college students have been working through the bulldozed mounds collecting samples. My first trip there was in 1974 and at that time beaded back turtle fossils were scattered like bird seed across the surface. The family at one time had about one thousand acres surrounding the dig, I think the family only controls a few hundred acres at this point.
The original well was being dug into the hill where a cold spring seeped cold water year round. Experts claim the area amassed so many fossils because the Gulf of America once came all the way up into Missouri and they believe a tar pit trapped animals on the water's edge. I know the exact location of another seeping spring just a quarter of a mile from the dinosaur dig....my adventurous side wants to grab a shovel and go exploring....my soar back says screw it.
The real value for my family may just be in the story... Then again one of my children may decide to go exploring someday. A Sabre tooth tiger tooth is worth up to $3,000. An entire animal will bring $80,000 on the low end and other types of fossils have sold for millions of dollars..... So maybe our family just shares the story or someday we put on our best Indiana Jones hat and dig..........
Have you ever found a fossil? Been to a dig? Do you know the location I am speaking about? You can google the details, they have hidden it's exact location for the most part....but a few of the old timer's probably still know the way.....
