This is Throwback Thursday #97. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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Knightia
An article from FRIENDS magazine entitled "Fishing the Eocene Age" appeared back in the January 1972 edition of the ESCONI newsletter, "Earth Science News". Unfortunately, except for a British underground magazine in the 1960's and 1970's, there doesn't seem to be much about FRIENDS magazine available online. Additionally, the article was published without an attribution, so there is no way to find out who wrote the article.
The article is about Carl Ulrich and his family, who were living in Diamondville in southwestern Wyoming, which is right next to Kemmerer, WY. They had been collecting Green River fossils since the early 1950's. Fossil Butte National Monument is maybe 15 miles away from Diamondville. The Ulrich Fossil Gallery is at the exit to Fossil Butte, which is run by the same family. So, if you've been to Kemmerer, this story might seem familiar, just 50 years ago. Oh, and if you go to Kemmerer, don't miss the J.C. Penney mother store. It's actually the second J.C. Penney store, but the first one is in town, too.
On to the article...
FISHING THE EOCENE AGE----(Reprinted courtesy FRIENDS magazine)
When it comes to fish and fishing, Carl Ulrich and his small family like to work both ends of the geologic table. If not baiting a hook for a Wyoming brook, a member is most likely to be found recovering slabs of shale containing fish fossils that help to delineate life on earth in the Eocene epoch, 36 to 58 million years ago. At this distance, it is impossible to be more precise. On the other hand, for a fish story, that is close enough.
The Ulrichs live in Diamondville, a hamlet of about 500 on US-30N in southwestern Wyoming, and, like the fossils they lift from the bed of a prehistoric lake, are a rare breed. They happened onto "fossil fishing some 20 years ago, without benefit of technical training or academic background, and since have become recognized by museums around the world as outstanding in the field of discovery and preparation of marine fossils.
Fossil Butte, just off US-30N about 10. miles west of Diamondville, is a fertile field of fossilized fish for the family to explore. Tourists may look, but mustn't touch. The Ulrichs, under license. by the Wyoming Land Board, alone may remove the fossils. As natives, their love for the area has deep roots, and their credentials for truly scientific study and recovery are well established.
In his work, Ulrich is joined by his wife, Shirley, their two children, Wallace and Gail, and, since last spring, by Wally's bride, Beth. The three youngsters are all students at the University of Wyoming at Laramie.
The Ulrich version of finding riches in their own backyard had its origin in the early '50s, when Carl and Shirley, unable to fish for something fresher, drove out to Fossil Butte, as Shirley recalls, "just to look around." The Butte is an out-cropping of shale in the Green River Formation, and contains one of the best-stocked marine fossil beds in the world.
They knew that over the past century railroad construction crews, rock hounds, and oil company bulldozers tearing at the oil-saturated shale had almost obliterated the beds. Barely in time, the federal government closed the land to unauthorized excavations.
On the day that changed their lives, Shirley remembers that we brought home some broken pieces of fossil shale and tried to prepare them.
"I loved the exploration involved and Carl had the artistic patience required for cleaning fossils.'
As their interest grew, the two intensified their study of fossils and marine life. Almost from birth, Wally and Gail were exposed to and became absorbed by the work of their parents.
Despite their interest, however, the work was and remains a part time thing. Carl has retained his position with the El Paso Natural Gas Company, but devotes every vacation period, weekend, and evening in season to exploration. Work in the quarry is impossible in NC winter, when they prepare fossils in their laboratory at home.
The detection, removal, and preparation of a 50-million -year old fossil is work of the most exacting kind. The scene at one time was a semi-tropical lake, 150 miles long and 30 miles wide, surrounded by endless reaches of lush vegetation. In whatever 30 convolutions there were to cause the lake to drain, the trapped fish were buried under the weight and pressure of enormous over burden and compressed to paper thinness.
With keen eyesight and sensitive fingers, the Ulrichs can detect the slight undulations in the shale surface that indicate a fossil.
A laminate only a fraction of an inch in depth is removed, and it is with the upper side of this that the work is done with fine pointed triangular files and an air hose to remove the fine dust as it is loosened.
Only the covering shale is removed, leaving the fossil imbedded to show how it was found. The average time involved in preparation is about eight hours, but Ulrich has labored as many as 300 hours on one specimen.
The fossils range in length from less than two inches to nearly six feet, and examples of Ulrich craftsmanship are, on display at the Smithsonian Institute and other great museums of this country, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Emperor Hirohito of Japan was delighted when President Eisenhower presented him with a choice Ulrich fossil--a Diplomystus, or armored herring.
The Diplomystus is one of six genera of fish found in fossilized form to make up the bulk of the Ulrich "catch." The others are the Knightia, Priscacara, Miosus (found only here), Phareodus, and Notogoneus (found also in Labrador).
More than 2,400 fossils have been salvaged and prepared by the Ulrichs, whose fees rage generally from $15 to $750, although one multiplex plaque, containing three large and 48 small fossils with in an area about five feet square, brought $7,000.
Visitors who make arrangements in advance may accompany the Ulrichs to their quarry. Under close supervision and using Ulrich equipment, they may remove a layer of shale containing a fossil to prepare for themselves. There is a modest fee, as there is if they purchase a fossil in the raw-one unsuitable for museum display at the Ulrich workshop in Diamondville.
Diamondville is about 450 miles west of Cheyenne (I-80 and US-30N), and 132 miles north of Salt Lake City (I-80 and SR-189). Should a sign on the workshop door say, "Gone fishing", the only question to be answered is, fresh or fossilized?
