Dinosaur National Monument
When I visited Dinosaur National Monument, I couldn’t help but think of all the young boys who come into our office talking about dinosaurs. They know the names and, and to them, dinosaurs are larger than life. Standing inside this monument, I realized how unforgettable it would be for them to see the real thing.
The monument was established in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson to protect the remarkable fossil deposit discovered in 1909 by paleontologist Earl Douglass. Originally, the protected area focused on the quarry itself. In 1938, the boundaries were expanded to include the surrounding canyon, preserving not only the fossils and the dramatic river landscapes.
The heart of the monument is the Quarry Exhibit Hall where a massive rock wall holds more than 1,500 visible dinosaur fossils still embedded in stone. These remains date back about 145-150 million years to the late Jurassic Period, when this area was a floodplain with rivers, swaps and lush vegetation.
Among the dinosaurs found here are: Allosaurus, Apatosaurus Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and Camarasaurus.
What makes this site unique is that many of the bones remain in the original rock layer where they were discovered. Visitors are not simply viewing reconstructed skeletons; they are seeing fossils preserved in their geological context.
Dinosaur National Monument is not just a fossil site. It is a preserved chapter of earth’s history safeguarded so future generations can stand face to face with time.
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