Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1938-07-07
WYOMING, LAND OF THE
DINOSAURS

Dear Editor Democrat:-I have
crossed the length of the state of
Wyoming by three different routes.
Each time / have been fascinated.
It's vast plains and mountains, its
scarcely tapped resources, it's weird
scenery and phenomena make it de-
cidedly interesting. 1t is an infant
and undeveloped state, with less
than a quarter million of popula-
tion It rests like a saddle on the
continental divide which runs from
the Yellowstone to Cheyenne. One
third of the state is underlaid with
coal, or say about 20 million acres.
In coal reserves it leads all states.
and would supply us for hundred
years to come. At Rock Springs
there are Is large coal mines. We
went to the miners church, and lis
tened to creditable program by
the miners children. Wamsutter
they told us was a place where
they mine uranium, the father Of
radium.
We came east over the Lincoln
highway, running from the Missis-
sippi to the coast, over which trail
a hundred thousand emigrants
came, in 1849, and the only mail
was carried by the pony express.
Here there is little cultivation, but
three million sheep find pasture.
and it is said herds Of ten thousands
of cattle range. The largest pure
bred herd of Herefords in the world
is here, and they get fat on Buffalo
grass which has something of the
cereal value of oats Part of the
state is in the dust bowl, where dry
farming is practiced, and even this
form of cultivation is likely to be
given up, because of the dust
storms.
Parco We visited twice, model
town owned by the oil company
point, and which gave it it's name
Near here is Tea Pot Dome. The
oil industry ships about forty mil
lion barrels year. DEVILS Tower
is an unique monument to volcanic
fires in days long gone by. 1t is a
symmetrical, perpendicular basalt
plug, pushed up in an ancient crat-
er, then hardened in six sided
prisms, and now left standing alone,
the volcano and crater being all
washed away. 1t can be seen for
twenty miles in every direction, and
was a guide to the early emigrants,
as it stands 1880 feet above the
valley, in the shape of an inverted
cork. Other points Of interest are,
of course, Yellowstone Park, the
Grand Tetons, mountains rising
straight from Jackson Lake, and
grouped charmingly together, the
mountain cut road from Sylvan
Lake, Shoshone Dam to Cody, past
and from Ten Sleep over the Big
Horn mountains to Buffalo.
Near Medicine Bow, we reached
the highest point on the Lincoln
highway-8,S35 feet above the sea.
Here you may see a hundred miles
to Longs Peak, Colorado, and in
other directions also. Snowy Range
pleases the eye, the sun falling on
it's glistening snowy summit, $4,000
feet high. Here is the scene of
Owen Wister's "Virginian." Here,
at Battle Mountain, on a fishing
trip, Edison got his idea for the
tungsten lamp filament. Here at
Como Bluff is the "Dinosaur Grave
yard" to which we drove, and we
odW IuC louS, CACdtdICu CllI WhClO
the greatest dinosaurs were found.
What is called the "oldest house in
the world" is here, built entirely Of
fossil dinosaur bones. At Carnegie
museum, Pittsburgh, these monster
reptiles measure 70 to 100 feet.
They lived over 100000 years ago.
Their names are too long for this
article. The house of 5796 bones
is built of the fragments left after
excavation, and is a museum filled
with relics of great scientific inter-
est, gathered by a great soul, who
will be an inspiration to me, az
long, as l live. These dinosaurs
were washed down by an ancient
river, builded in sand-bars, and pre-
served, to give us some idea of that
strange world, over which they were
the ruling monarchs.-Dr Howard
III. Scott