The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-04-18
DIR. J.C.SIECFRIEDT
TALKS IN BILLINGS
Made Address Monday After
noon Before Associated
Woman S Clubs.

Enthusiasm reached high pitc
Monday afternoon among members 0
the Woman's club when tentativ
plans were proposed by DR.. ]. C. +
Siegfriedt Of Bearcreek, physical
who has made study of paleontolog.
for a monumental Billings museum
says the Billings Gazette. While n,
official action was taken by the clul
in indorsing the proposition, whicl
might in time become, because of it
proposed location here, one Of tn,
most complete of American institu
tions of this type, it was generally
felt that some action would be take1
by the club at its next business meet
ing. This meeting will occur on May
g.
The plan as outlined by Doctor
Siegfriedt, who has made important
discoveries in the Bearcreek section
revolved about an institution that
would be self-sustaining and private
high in educational value, and later to
be connected as a unit of the Greater
University of Montana.
The. fact that all odd specimens of
reptilian life, such as dinosaurs and
extinct mammal life, exhibited in east
ern museums are labeled "from Mon
tana' or "from Wyoming" was one
of the scientists strongest points in
favor of location of such an institu-
tion in Billings.
The museum, he declared, would in
corporate the sciences of anthrop-
ology, mineralogy, geology, botany,
and natural history.
Through the states bureau of mines
and Montana mining companies, he
asserted, a collection could be had of
the most wonderful collection of min
eral deposits in the entire world. He
said that, because precious stone ex-
ports from Montana We're bigger than
any other state in the nation, a fine
collection could be had of this item.
Scientists, he declared, come every
year to this section of the Rocky
mountains and find each year new
species of plants that had not before
been recorded.
Specimens of wild life, now cover
ed by the state fish and game com
mission, could be exhibited at the Bill
llngs museum to make comparisons
with prehistoric life as it once existed
in Montana, along with paleontology,
the existence of things as they were.
Stressing the educational aid such
an institution would have and out
lining its method of self-support
through small admission charges, the
doctor showed how such a museum,
organized, could work in
harmony with both the Billings Poly
technic institute and the Eastern
Montana Normal college.
Such fossils as had been collect
ed in Montana and other sections of
5he northwest, Doctor Siegfriedt as
serted, would be on exhibit here, as
we'll as the many private collections
n homes and libraries that are now
'ut OF reach of the average citizen.
His proposal to the Woman's club
the immediate naming of a
committee to organize plan of cam
'aign for the museum. Civic organ
cations, he said, banded together
With the purpose of promoting an in
tltution that should naturally come
0 Billings, could easily begin con-
rete work on the project within six
months.
Though the lecture was ended at 4 !,
clock, it was 5:15 before the meet
1g adjourned, more than a full hour !.
eng taken up by members and :
uests questioning Doctor Siegfriedt !
n his discoveries and his proposal.
While only private opinions were :
lven of the museum project, several !
'aders IN the organization work :
ere outspoken in it's behalf. Among :
1ese were Mrs. S. w. Soule of 211 :
orth Thirty-fourth street, and Mrs.
alph Timmel Of 142 Avenue D. 6
Perhaps our scientists NAV show
lat the garden of Eden was in the :,
of the Rocky mountains" :, .
octor Siegfridet declared in his talk. : :
hich he led from an estimated dur
ION OF 700 to 1000 million Years :
30, known as the proterozoic age. q
'wn to the age Of mammals and the y
re Of man 65 to 100 million wears .
70.
Through the perilous march of life T. T.
'on the planet, Doctor Siegfriedt !
ok his audience. After stating that !;
clentlfic advances of the last half :
injury have done more to extend our =
oWledge than all achievements IN !,
1885," the scientist continued with = =
assertion that ''the old theory Of =
formation of the earth, called the l..
bular hypothesis, has been discard =!
for the planetesimal theory "