Carnegie sent one man to Utah in 1909. He shipped back 700,000 pounds of dinosaurs.

Earl Douglass’s Utah Dinosaur Quarry Discovery at Vernal

In 1909, Earl Douglass got simple orders: “dig up dinosaur bones east of Vernal.”

He struck gold that August when he found eight Apatosaurus tail bones jutting from a Utah hillside. Soon after, Douglass moved his wife and baby son to a ranch near the site.

Over the next 15 years, his crews unearthed nearly 20 complete dinosaur skeletons and shipped 700,000 pounds of fossils to Pittsburgh.

Local folks pitched in, sold supplies, and dreamed the site might draw tourists someday. Their wish came true in 1915 when President Wilson made the 80-acre quarry into Dinosaur National Monument.

Today, you can see this remarkable fossil wall exactly where Douglass made his historic find.

Carnegie Museum Wanted Dinosaurs to Beat Their Rivals

In 1909, W. J. Holland told Earl Douglass to “dig up dinosaur bones east of Vernal” after the museum did well with their Wyoming Diplodocus display.

The Carnegie Museum fought with Chicago and New York museums for the best sauropod skeletons during the “Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush.”

Douglass didn’t want to switch from mammal fossils to hunting dinosaurs, but his boss made him. Their 1908 trip with Holland found a big Diplodocus leg bone near Green River, but they couldn’t remove it.

One Summer Day Changed Dinosaur History Forever

On August 17, 1909, Douglass spotted eight Apatosaurus tail bones sticking out of a sandstone hill.

He wrote in his journal about seeing “eight of the tail bones of a brontosaurus in exact position” and called it “a beautiful sight.”

This big find came after two weeks of bad luck that left him feeling “disgusted” with the search. The breakthrough happened while checking a new gulch area with thick sandstone beds near Jensen, Utah.

The Douglass Family Made a Home in the Desert

Pearl Douglass moved with their one-year-old son Gawin in September 1909 to live at the dig site. They built “Dinosaur Ranch” near the quarry and stayed until 1923.

Earl even sold their Pittsburgh home to help pay for their Utah homestead outside the monument area. What started as a summer fossil trip turned into 14 years of desert living and working.

Getting Dinosaurs Out of Rock Wasn’t Easy

Workers blasted through hard sandstone and granite with dynamite to reach the fossil beds. When they got to the skeletons, they switched to careful chiseling to protect the bones.

They wrapped bones in tissue paper, covered them in plaster, packed them in straw, and put them in crates for shipping. Douglass carried a gun to shoot chipmunks that kept eating the paste and plaster off the specimens.

Moving 350 Tons of Fossils Took Some Serious Planning

The team moved fossils on horse-drawn wagons to Dragon, Utah, then loaded them on the Uintah Railroad to Mack, Colorado. From there, they went on the main railroad all the way to Pittsburgh.

By 1922, they sent nine boxcar loads totaling over 700,000 pounds to the Carnegie Museum. The rough western land made them pack everything extra carefully for the long trip east.

Locals Loved Having a Dinosaur Quarry in Town

Townspeople showed up within days as “two loads of people came from Vernal to see the dinosaur. ” Families brought babies, and old folks climbed steep slopes just to watch the digging.

People from nearby towns sold food and supplies to Douglass and sometimes helped dig.

The community quickly started dreaming about turning the quarry into a tourist spot that could bring money to their area.

The Quarry Turned Out to Be a Fossil Gold Mine

The first Apatosaurus skeleton was the most complete ever found and became the star at the museum. The site gave up nearly 20 complete skeletons including Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Barosaurus, and Camarasaurus.

The digging got tricky when they found three more Apatosaurus skeletons under the first one. This spot became the most productive Jurassic quarry in the Morrison Formation with 350 tons of fossil material.

President Wilson Made the Site a National Monument

On October 4, 1915, President Wilson named the 80-acre site Dinosaur National Monument without telling Douglass first. Holland talked to his Washington friends at the U.S. Geological Survey and Smithsonian to get federal protection for the area.

The monument status kept homesteaders and miners from messing with hidden fossils. When Douglass tried to file a mining claim, the government said no because “bones are not minerals.

The Museum Finally Had Enough Dinosaurs

In 1922, the Carnegie Museum decided it had “enough fossil material” and gave up its claim on the quarry. Andrew Carnegie’s death in 1919 cut off the main money for the dig.

During their final years, they focused on the western quarry sections where they found an Allosaurus skeleton. Douglass kept working for the museum while getting ready to move to other groups.

Other Museums Got Their Turn at the Famous Site

From 1923 to 1924, Douglass worked with both the National Museum (Smithsonian) and University of Utah at the same time. This team-up let other museums that had been kept out finally use the famous quarry.

During this last digging phase, Douglass found a large chunk of a Barosaurus lentus skeleton. After 15 years of non-stop work, all quarry operations ended in 1924.

Douglass’s Dream Lives On at the Monument Today

The University of Utah hired Douglass from 1924 to 1926 to prepare quarry fossils for display in Salt Lake City.

He spent his final working years as a consulting geologist for oil companies across Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas. In 1938, the monument grew to 210,844 acres and included Douglass’s original homestead.

The quarry visitor center that opened in 1957 finally made Douglass and the local residents’ dream come true with an on-site public fossil display.

Visiting Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado

You can visit Dinosaur National Monument 7 miles north of Jensen, Utah on Highway 149 to see where Earl Douglass discovered one of North America’s most productive fossil quarries. Entry costs $25 per vehicle.

Summer shuttles run every 15 minutes from 9:30am to 5pm to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, or drive yourself between 8-9:15am before the road closes. The 1.2-mile Fossil Discovery Trail connects the Visitor Center to the Exhibit Hall.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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