|
 John Day Fossil Beds - Wheeler & Grant Counties, Oregon Posted by:  ddtfamily
N 44° 33.166 W 119° 38.767
11T E 289828 N 4936675
National Monument containing well-preserved fossil remains of plants and animals from 7 to 44 million years ago
Waymark Code: WMFFPN
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 10/12/2012
Views: 8
"At 117.7 m. through a ranch yard and up Waterspout Gulch, the JOHN DAY FOSSIL BEDS in a ridge where a layer of pale green calcareous deposit a thousand feet thick is exposed. The ridge is so spectacularly eroded in its upper reaches that it is called the New Jerusalem. In these deposits are fossilized relics of the period when this high region of badlands, sagebrush plain, and wheatfields was low tropical jungle inhabited by rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers, giant sloths, oreodonts, miniature horses, and other ancestors of present-day animals, as well as curious and extinct species. As shown by great numbers of specimens, including agatized roots and leaves, palm, redwood, magnolia, fig, and ginko trees grew in profusion in this place where the hardy sagebrush now survives with difficulty. After the gigantic upheaval that resulted in formation of the Coast Range, volcanic eruptions covered the land with lava and ash. Then came the great ice-cap over the lands to the north and, yet later, the slow melting period during which some of Oregon's chief rivers were formed. As these, including the John Day, cut down through the crust accumulated through the ages, they revealed the deposits that tell the story of the land's prehistoric life.
Among the Oregon emigrants of 1852 was a clergyman, Thomas Condon, who was particularly interested in geology. A cavalry officer, member of a punitive expedition against the natives of central Oregon in the i86o's, brought the first specimens from this area to The Dalles and to Mr. Condon's attention. Soon Mr. Condon had visited the beds himself in the company of other Indian fighters. In 1870 he sent a small collection of teeth from the beds to Yale University, bringing the natural museum to the attention of scientists. In 1889 a Princeton University expedition removed two tons of specimens from the beds and many other groups have also worked here. Only a small part of the region has been explored. At 118.2 m. the exposed strata of a lofty cliff (L), bared by erosion, tells the geologic history of the region for millions of years." -Oregon: End of the Trail, 1940
Today, the area described in Oregon: End of the Trail is within in the "Sheep Rock Unit" of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The park contains the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, and the James Cant Ranch Historical Museum.
Book: Oregon: End of the Trail
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 296-297
Year Originally Published: 1940
|
Visit Instructions:
To log a Visit, please supply an original image of the Waymark.
|