Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Utah, 1909

File — Box: 5, Volume: 25

Identifier: II

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Douglass worked for Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, visited his relatives in Minnesota, and looked for fossils in Utah.

3 June--"Got this book today .... Wanted a handy notebook to take out west. Do not expect to always cling closely to days and dates.
"There are many things that I wish to remember and keep something like the sequence of events. Sometimes one event a day would serve as a string to hold many remembrances. I have made a mistake in not having this in the past."
23 June--"Told Dr. Holland I was ready to go and wanted to start the evening of the next day. 'All right,' he said. He asked if anyone was going with me. I said no and that my wife was going to Minnesota & to Mont.... It was the first time I could get him to talk or listen. He has seemed very peculiar about the expeditions this year."
6 August--"In the morning (4th) I recd several letters. One from Dr. Holland which made me change my plans as he wished me to dig up Dinosaur bones east of Vernal. He seemed somewhat disgruntled, made me a little hot. He seemed to think I wasn't doing much. He had recd the letter I sent to Stewart which as the latter didn't understand such things was not very enthusiastic."
8 August--"I went out and took a walk in the country N. of Vernal and took a few pictures. It was hot as blazes. It seems to me that it's almost always hot in this country, but I suppose it isn't in the winter, and you get in a cool place near the water and in the shade and the flies, mosquitoes and midges are there to persecute you."
12 August--"Went out prospecting again coming out of the gulch I went in the day before. Found Dinosaur bones but nothing good. Saw broken remains of a little fellow. Once in awhile one can get a good limb bone here and I do not doubt that there are good specimens to be had but they don't appear to be very common."
17 August--"At last in the top of the ledge where the softer overlying [sandstone] beds form a divide--a kind of saddle I saw eight of the tail bones of a Brontosaurus in exact position. It was a beautiful sight. Part of the ledge had weathered away and several of the vertebra had weathered out and the beautifully petrofied centra lay on the ground. It is by far the best looking Dinosaur prospect I have ever found. The part exposed is worth preserving anyway."
18 August--"It is natural for one to picture a whole skeleton head and all. Things look so good that this is almost unavoidable. But one is liable to be disappointed. But if it were whole the rest of it!! My !!!"
19 August--"The construction of a road to the Dino. does not seem so difficult--the difficulty lessens but that of getting out the Dino. in good shape increases. It is going to be a tremendous job. But it will be one of the greatest specimens if it is all there. I hope at least to get a hind foot. If the Vertebrae were all in position it will be an astounding job. But there is a way. Of all things I must not injure the specimen by carelessness or want of skill."
22 August--"Today two loads of people came from Vernal to see the Dinosaur and there were several loads from other places. . . . For a time the rocks that never had the impress of a womans foot and seldom that of a man swarmed with people of all ages. Mothers and grandmothers ascended the steep, almost dangerous slopes, with babes and there were men and women well along in years. . . . I think some were disappointed in not seeing the whole 60 feet of the animal with the bones all uncovered."
3 September--"Today we built a wagon road from the terminus of the road we had used before, up as far as we will be able to go with the wagon. Used picks, shovels, plow and scraper. ... We have a good part of the trail built also."
4 September--"We are having trouble now getting coal and Giant Powder but we know where we can get them. ... I hope we will soon be able to spend full days at work on the Brontosaurus."
7 September--"Recd. Giant powder today, caps and coal for sharpening picks."
8 September--"Worked quite a little at the Dinosaur.
"Some of it is extremely frail. ... It will require great care and skill to get out right. Used some plaster today to protect frailest portions."
23 September--"The Brontosaurus is more disturbed than I thought it was at first, but just how much I can't tell. It seems [to be] going nearly straight down now."
1 October--"We usually get up ... near six o'clock. I go and quickly start the fires. Pearl gets up and usually Gawin wakes up so she has to dress him. I help get breakfast which consists of usually three or four of the following. Pork, Ham, Bacon, Eggs, Hot Biscuits, Johnny Cake, Corn Fritters, Cream of Wheat, sometimes pancakes, Coffee, Bread, Butter.
"After breakfast the men go out to the forge and sharpen their picks and drills. I do some work about camp, packing specimens. Pearl puts up lunch. Clarence drives up we put in lunch, water bag .... At river we stop to water horses and get water. When we get to fossil grounds Jim usually goes to drilling and the others to hauling, shoveling picking. I tend to the work near the skeleton."
18 October--"As far as success in my work is concerned I could not ask for more. For years I have wanted to get nearly complete skeletons. I had found much that was scientifically interesting but felt I had not found such complete things as I wanted to and others were ahead in this respect and there is no skeleton in the museum set up that I have collected. Now I have suddenly most of the skeleton of a large Dinosaur, apparently the most complete that has been found and now there is as good a prospect of a little fellow which probably will be new. Then there is a good part of another skeleton--not so nicely preserved."
11 December--"Recd a letter and check from the Burell Syndicate. The check was for the Devil's Play Ground. I did not expect to get less than $40 or $50. ... It sold for $20 I suppose or I got $18. Well that is better than nothing and I guess it paid for the pictures."
14 December--"This is a day to be remembered as we took down the first really big specimen--part of the neck of No. 25. I[t] was somewhat of a surprise as it seems that we have only one series of the vertebrae of the neck instead of two as I supposed. With our pulleys anchored in the cliff above three of us eased the thing down while Jim levered[?] at and steadied it down with a crow bar. It came where I wanted it and right side up some of the bones of course were broken where [the] block parted but that had to be."
31 December--"My ambition has been satisfied in many ways this year. I discovered a new locality for fossil mammals in the Wasatch, and I have probably found the best Brontosaurus and small Dinosaur. I did not care to do quarry work but the magnitude and glory of them both have spurred my ambition and it is [a] tower[?] of interest and pleasure. . . .
"We are getting better and better fixed financially. We have been wading in debt since we were married. . . . Now it is easier and we are living the simple life and we both earn something and have our board paid."

Dates

1909

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.