Foot Site

First discovered in 1993 by Ty Naus, a WDC geologist who noted some interested exposures of bone, marking them with one of the first GPS units as part of a ranch survey, nothing was said about their potential significance at the time. Ty called the site “FS,” for Foot Site as some of the first encounters were with pedal elements (foot bones). In 1995, as president of WIPS (Western Interior Paleontological Society), Malcolm Bedell came to the recently established Wyoming Dinosaur Center to investigate reports of discoveries there which might offer opportunities for WIPS members to get both instruction and experience in field methods. This was during a period when field trips having to do with dinosaurs had been declining for WIPS, after a good run in the early 1990’s. Malcolm had a productive meeting with founder Dr. Burkhard Pohl, and the other managers of the operation at the time, followed by a tour of sites and facilities. They seemed eager to have WIPS as a partner, and it was suggested that Malcolm come back the same summer, alone, to participate in some field activity. That was done and, despite some very hard work in heat, found to be intensely interesting, with the staff quite friendly and supportive. Dr. Pohl suggested a larger party of volunteers for the following season to work on various paleo projects around the ranch. Later, the WIPS Board of Directors agreed.

In 1996, a WIPS field crew of less than 10 people was gathered for the WDC field season, including Malcolm. The WIPS party worked initially at several other sites (such as the BS site), but never at FS. In fact, FS had been nearly forgotten by that time. The little work done at FS was with Dig For A Day crews from WDC. In fact, FS had been accidentally renamed (after it was “rediscovered”) as the “KC” site. Nevertheless, WIPS’ participation in everything else was deemed a success, their last field trip ending in October with perfect weather, and good feelings all around.

The following year (1997), a diamond geologist, Bill Stein, was given the responsibility of opening and exploring further KC (FS) for WDC. The Big Horn Basin Foundation existed at that time, but was much smaller than it is today. WIPS worked with both organizations. It was suggested by Bill that WIPS could do some work over at KC (FS), though Dig-For-A-Day groups were still working the site. A WIPS member named Ken Smith, and his family, became heavily involved that season, running some of the WIPS trips  to WDC without Malcolm’s direct supervision. All having been thoroughly trained in the Denver Museum’s certification program, they imposed the DMNH (now DMNS) numeration system on all bones recovered, giving the site a third name: the “J” site. When Mr. Stein realized that some extraordinary fossils had been turning up, he researched the old records, discovering the labeling mistake and reinstituted the name “FS Quarry.” At that time, one of Ken’s daughters thought she had found 3 “horns” poking out of the rock near several other larger bones of obvious importance. Malcolm was nearby then and, having just completed three graduate level osteology courses given by C.U. and DMNH, was asked to look at these bones. It was determined that they were actually the claws of a probable pes (hind foot) of a sauropod. Dr. Robert Bakker showed up also at that time and, lending his own expertise, offered that the foot certainly belonged to a Diplodocus. Bill decided to put Malcolm exclusively on that foot for what proved to be the remainder of a very long summer. Having also been hired to do instructional tours of the museum and “Dig-For-A-Day” excavations at other sites, this meant the FS work had to be done before 7 am and after 5 pm, then on weekends. That same season a second pes, as well as a manus (front foot), were recovered, and many other bones. Conditions at the quarry were primitive, with a winding footpath through dense forest strewn with very large boulders (one 7 meters tall) the only way to gain access to the bones. People would sometimes literally get lost on the way to the quarry. We brought everything in on our backs, hanging our packs from an enormous cedar tree which marked the site, and often ate lunch under one of the larger boulders, dynamited in 1999.

In 1998, it was suggested that the quarry be designated a “WIPS” Quarry, with Malcolm in charge as the principal investigator. WIPS then mounted more trips to the area, making several new discoveries and also occasionally being allowed to work other sites around the ranch. It was noticed that some of the original bone had been mislabeled as whole bones, but were in fact pieces of even larger bones, many of which were articulated with one another. This included, eventually, a string of perfect mid-caudal (tail) vertebrae with the characters necessary to help diagnose a Diplodocus, the joint of a humerus/radius/ulna so perfect further study of that joint alone could be useful, articulated scapulocoracoids with unfused symphyses (the mark of a juvenile sauropod), and other things along the same lines too numerus to mention here. It was decided the site had gained so much notoriety (by now newspeople, photographers, etc. were beginning to show up from all over the region), that a considerable investment in time and heavy equipment (including a trac hoe) would be brought in the following year (1999) to completely reconfigure the site in order to properly work it from the top down. A parking lot would be created, a specially shielded scintillometer would be brought in by its inventor, Ray Jones, to check the site for bone-bearing layers before removing large amounts of overburden, and several other things done.

The reconfiguration, and everything else, was accomplished very early in the 1999 season. WIPS came back several times while Malcolm remained for most of the summer to manage the project, though in constant consultation with Burkhard, WDC, and BHBF. After writing and publishing some preliminary findings for the 1999 SVP Journal, Malcolm was asked, along with Dave Trexler (the WDC paleontologist of that time), and Doctor Pohl to represent BHBF at the SVP conference in Denver that year. It was our contention that we had the first known articulated manus of a Diplodocus carnegii from the FS Quarry. Dinosaur experts from around the world viewed our exhibit, including Dr. Jack McIntosh of Wesleyan University, the reigning sauropod expert then. He was so convinced we were correct that he asked us to write a deeper description for scientific publication, which Malcolm and Dave agreed to do at some future date. Florida Atlantic University, and the University of West Virginia (through WDC and BHBF) contributed a great deal to the field work that summer, as did WIPS, but WIPS could not constantly have people there, so it became therefore understood that “WIPS Quarry” could also mean “in cooperation with BHBF and other volunteers,” but under WIPS (Malcolm’s) management.

During the year 2000, enormous fires swept through the Big Horn Canyon, considerably curtailing operations at WDC.  As a result, FS was not opened at all that season. People who did go up on “The Hill” (Thermopolis Anticline, where most of the main quarries are located) wore masks.

In 2001, Malcolm applied for a large grant to enable a full, concerted effort at excavating what, at the time, was thought to be the monospecific quarry of a juvenile Diplodocid. Holes were drilled 18 inches deep in large boulders, filled with expansive cement to anchor pieces of rebar fitted with 1200 to 2500-hundred-pound test line (against legendary Wyoming winds) to secure the quarry shelter. Concrete and wooden stairs were built to prevent injury when moving equipment, people, and dinosaur bones in and out of the quarry. A drainage system of ditches and pipes was emplaced and several other improvements made. Separate lodging was acquired for volunteers, and much equipment bought.

From 2001 to about 2012, the quarry has been worked every season by a combination of WIPS and BHBF volunteers, with most from WIPS. More recently, the emphasis has begun to shift such that the BHBF contribution is now dominant. During all of this evolvement many different groups have participated, some through WIPS, others through BHBF. A short WIPS list would include the Schiele Museum (Gastonia, NC), Eastern Tennessee University, The Gray Fossil Site (also East TN), the University of Pennsylvania, the Field Museum and University of Chicago, and Canada. BHBF has contributed people from Florida Atlantic University, the University of West Virginia, as well as individuals and groups from Germany, Japan, and England. Some of these volunteers have gone on to pursue advanced degrees in paleontology and other sciences. There was a master’s thesis defense at Un. Of Northern Colorado a few years back, another in California, and a Ph.D. in New Mexico.

Occasionally, some world-renowned paleontologists have visited FS, inspiring or contributing to research at the quarry. Dr. Robert Bakker was one of the earliest visitors to lend his expertise and encouragement to the project, even giving Malcolm an unpronounceable nick name meaning “keeper of the Diplodocus Feet” in Dutch-German. Peter Dodson very kindly paid us a visit as well; Cleveland Lloyd Quarry’s Jim Madsen, Dr. Kirk Johnson of the (then) Denver Museum of Natural History (he is now the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History), and others. The FS Quarry has also had some presence in the media over the years. Besides articles in newspapers located around the US, there have been spots on TV programs such as Voice of America (China), National Public Television (US), and even a “part” in a French-German movie having to do with the March-Cope “Bone Wars” of the 19th Century. Once, a small plane even flew below the quarry at tree-top level, twice in one day, too – no movie or TV cameras present on that day, unfortunately...

Equipment and Research has been an emphasis at FS since at least 1997, some of it interesting. Paleo hand tools made from garden, boating, automotive, and still other tools have been used, some custom-designed by machinists. Cutting-edge pneumatic equipment from Germany, Utah have helped in rock which sometimes can bend hardware store chisels around in a “U” at their ends. Besides the already-mentioned scintillometer, ground-penetrating radar, and a Nikon Total Station for measuring bone positions (along with radial measurements and a Brunton Compass) have been used. In fact, one very talented WIPS volunteer designed a unique metal and wood platform to insure more rapid and accurate field set-up of the Total Station, an invaluable time-saver with such a complex machine. All of these terrific tools have been used toward the end of enabling discovery and research. Rock in FS varies widely in hardness, sometimes easily workable with small hand tools; other times (as mentioned above) extremely tough. We had some of the most difficult rock (both from FS and a neighboring quarry) thin-sectioned and photographed in Oklahoma with an electron microscope. This was analyzed by Doctor Lou Taylor (research associate of the Denver Museum), and showed FS rocks to be highly silicified, containing some reproductive features of fresh water algae. This, in combination with barite (often found near the bones), and other clues, indicates a lacustrine (lake) environment. Probably the most important work done at FS, however, resulted in the publication (2005), as part of the peer-reviewed “Thunder-Lizards, the Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs (University of Indiana Press, Tidwell, Carpenter) of a chapter by Bedell and Trexler describing the first articulated manus (front foot) of a Diplodocus carnegii. This was said to be important to many people working on sauropods at the time, and represents the “deeper description” asked for by McIntosh in 1999. As work continued, we received a formal request by Dr. Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. They were considering a major overhaul of their famous Dinosaur Hall involving 17 animals, the most important of which was “Dippy” (for younger visitors) the Diplodocus. Matt wanted their two Diplodocus to have correct front feet, something missing from replicas in Paris, Buenos Aires, London and other cities for over 100 years. Of course, we said “yes,” and that was done in 2008. A “circle of research” was completed where something is discovered, excavated, prepared, examined, scientifically described, and then used. This use may or may not be for public display. Sometimes, the bones are placed in a “reference collection” for scientists to access if they need to see them when doing research. In this case, something which had eluded science for many decades is now known, allowing collections of disparate fragments in many museums to be reconstructed with confidence that this was what they looked like when alive in a very distant past.

As important as the manus paper was to the project, research at FS continues to this day. One of the pes (hind feet) has proven to have some pathology, and is now being described by a group with several different affiliations, including Kansas State University and the University of Oklahoma. A few years ago, a series of closely associated proximal caudal vertebrae were recovered. These can be very diagnostic (sometimes to species), and need to be more carefully analyzed. Recent work on some of our blockcasts (groups of only partially known bones taken out as a mass) have revealed an entirely new manus, and several other interesting things.  Over 700 bones have been discovered since 1997 and the FS Site is one of the most important sites on the Warm Springs Ranch. It is now known that there was more than one animal in that ancient lake, too……….as the quarry continues to give up its secrets.