The Wild Calls

Great Road Trip

one3xi — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:07:54 +0000

April had been a busy month for The Wild Calls. We have been traveling (3188 miles and counting) all over the west attending different Gem and Mineral shows as well as society and club meetings. The purpose of each trip was to connect with individuals that would naturally be interested in our trips. We also gave away a few seats in return for advertising at their shows. Once people realized how nice the gift was they were more than happy to help us out. First up was the Gem and Mineral show in Pocatello Idaho. Everyone was very friendly and they were extremely happy to receive a ticket to our trip in August. We also met with the Idaho falls Gem & Mineral Society. they had a drawing for the ticket we presented them and a member named Shannon Bowen was the winner. I spoke with her over the phone and she was thrilled about having won something so cool. She had never won anything before so it was a great surprise. My next trip took me to the Ogden Gem & Mineral show sponsored by The Golden Spike Gem & Mineral Society. For this show they offered me a table for the three days of their show. I brought with me some fossils and had a great time talking to all of the people (kids especially) about them. Some of the kids were so excited to actually touch a real bone. I am not sure who had more fun them or me. I also had some very nice older ladies selling petrified wood and jewelry next to me. After a touch of food poisoning on Saturday night my 3 new step moms took good care of me. It was very sweet. Everyone at the show was just fantastic and friendly.

Then it was on to Denver and Colorado Springs. This Time Charlie Love and I traveled together. Charlie did a presentation on Easter Island for the Colorado Springs folks and it was very well received. In Denver we went to the Martin Zinn Expo and then the Littleton Gem and Mineral Society meeting. Both were excellent opportunities for us to meet some really cool people. At the Littleton show we gave a quick talk about what we do and watched a members presentation on their Iceland trip. Very Cool. We left Denver and made our way to Lubbock, Texas for their Gem and Mineral show. they were happy to get a ticket and like the rest of the groups we met they were just as friendly as can be. Texas and Wyoming people seem to compliment each other well. Onward to Carlsbad New Mexico and the famous caverns. I have been in caverns before but this one was definitely the biggest. Its a lot of walking so be prepared to be sore. After the caverns we drove to Roswell home of alien wonders. It was a pretty big city so I was actually surprised. I had expected 3 trailers and a gas station. We made are way towards Albuquerque with some stops along the way a various rock shops and odd places. One shop had furniture and paintings, stuff for western themed houses…all cool stuff but the item that caught my attention was a leather lined coffin for sale and of course the antler covered cross.

Our last night was spent at the Natural History Museum in Albuquerque. The Gem and Mineral Society had their meeting and we gave a short presentation. Again everyone was great. The trip was a really nice way to meet like-minded people whom we would love to have on our trips. We really do have some great people in this country and as bad as the news makes things sound the good folks are out there. 2400 miles from Green River, Wyoming and back. A great road trip.

Cretaceous Undersea Landslide

clove — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 03:09:32 +0000

Along Interstate 80 as you travel west through Wyoming there is a very interesting rock formation. A slice of the past frozen in the rock for all to see. The first photo shows folded sedimentary rock at the “downstream” end of an undersea landslide. It is the Cretaceous Blair Formation of the Mesa Verde Group. The fold occurs because the landslide has not detached yet at the leading end.

The second photo is of a completely detached under water landslide as it appears in cross section. This too is in the Cretaceous Blair Formation of the Mesa Verde Group. The part that you see is the trailing end of the landslide, the leading or front part has detached and slid further out to sea to the right and is not seen here.

Photo number three is a close up detail of the second slide. The result of these undersea landslides is that they form layers that have strata that are all jumbled up and mixed with each other. All three of these examples can be found together along I-80 at the Superior Exit 122.

Another cool discovery is that if you go to Google maps and place yourself in street view you can walk up and down this formation without the danger of getting plastered by a semi.

Enjoy

Eocene Fossil Humerus

one3xi — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:32:49 +0000

After many hours of scrubbing, picking and preparation this is the result. A right humerus from what I believe is a Uintathere. Location of find is “Bridger C” based on GPS coordinates cross referenced to Osborn and Wyoming Geologic Survey “Horse Ranch” Quadrangle. Length of Humerus as presented is 36cm. The distance from the Distal end to the Deltoid Tuberosity is approximately 27.5cm. By using the data shown it is possible that the remaining missing portion could be anywhere from an additional 1/4 to 1/2 of this distance. This gives a range of between 45cm to 54cm in total length.

I originally thought this was a bone from a Titanothere, however after some discussions with some folks on a fossil forum I was pointed towards the Uintathere. These were huge creatures with 6 horns.

I will post some more pictures in the future. Enjoy

Wildlife

timchilcott — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:20:16 +0000

Recently I acquired a couple hundred acres of Wyoming land for gold prospecting purposes. The claim is in the Oregon Buttes area on the Southern edge of the Wind River Range. My first day out was just a survey trip, walking the boundaries and generally getting to know the lay of the land. I was alone all day and never witnessed another soul. It was so peaceful and I felt as if I had taken a step back in time. Elk and deer were everywhere and I got some good pictures of a bull elk that was watching over my every move. I scared myself a bit when while walking through some sage brush I spooked a deer that was in hiding. I am not sure who was scared more, me or the deer! It was no more than 3 feet away when it bolted and I never saw it laying there. When my heart finally slowed down, I started to focus on the rocks on the ground to identify areas that may contain gold, that’s when I spotted this little Horned Toad. He probably knows where it’s hidden. Can’t wait to come back with my shovel and get to work.

Fossil Find

timchilcott — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:16:16 +0000

I had the opportunity to take a geologist buddy of mine out for a day of rock hounding. Specifically I had taken him a sample of a rock that I had found that he thought may be a diamond indicator. Since the area I was hiking in was a known diamond area he decided he would like to see for himself in order to put the rock in context. I was tickled pink thinking I had made some great discovery. We decided a trip was in order and we made our way into the badlands area in Southwest Wyoming and I took him to the spot of the find. After a few minutes, he dashed my hopes of riches after deciding it was actually a fragment of an ancient stream bed. Oh well, my dreams of owning a diamond mine vanished. I next took him to a spot in an old creek bed that contained some fossil bones that I had photographed. It was very cool having him there identifying the bits and pieces of bones. The Eocene period here was flush with creatures long gone, rhinos, tapirs, turtles, alligators and more.

On our way out of the creek bed my friend mentioned how nice it would be to find a big bone. A couple hundred yards later I decided to cut across a small embankment on the way back to the truck and wham!…I spot the end of a bone protruding from the remains of an older Eocene creek bed. The bone was big. As he walked up I nonchalantly said “look at this”…he stepped up and examined it and just said “oh my.” In the end it turned out to be about 1/3 of a right humerus. It was massive and took a couple of days of careful picking to extract. Thankfully we were on private land otherwise I would have had to leave it there for the elements to reclaim…but that’s a different rant for another time. It turns out that it belongs to a Uintathere. A 6 horned beast around 35 million years old. I love Wyoming…will post more pics later

Road Block

timchilcott — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:12:57 +0000

One of the cool things about Wyoming is that you never know what you might see or experience when you are out and about. In the mountains it may be a narrow escape from a moose collision or a spotting a young grizzly crossing meadow. Recently on a trip to a spot where my son and I like to gather pay dirt for gold mining, we encountered this Pronghorn. It apparently owns this particular two track and was in no hurry to leave. This is really quite unusual since most of the time they are very reluctant to let anything get close to them. When it finally ran away it did so at break neck speed. If you have never seen one of these puppies run you would be amazed. They are the second fastest land animal and have been clocked at 70 mph. My son and I have chased them in a pickup truck and 50 mph is a piece of cake for these guys. They shift into a higher gear and then just pull away still accelerating.

If you ever have a chance to visit Wyoming you should watch out for the Pronghorns. They are survivors and the last of their family type. They also outnumber people in Wyoming.

Tetons

timchilcott — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:08:53 +0000

Pictures don’t do this justice…you gotta see it in real life. Gorgeous. This is a photo of Mt.Moran a 12,605 foot (3,842 m) tall mountain in Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming. The mountain is named for Thomas Moran, an American western frontier landscape artist. Mount Moran dominates the northern section of the Teton Range rising 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above Jackson Lake. Several active glaciers exist on the mountain with Skillet Glacier plainly visible on the east face. There is some interesting geology associated with Mt. Moran. One is the great black basaltic dike that dominates its peak and the other is a patch of Flathead sandstone on its summit. The sandstone is the basement rock everywhere else in Wyoming yet here it sits on top of a 12,000 ft. mountain. That means that the other twenty to thirty thousand feet of material that normally sits on top of this sandstone has been eroded away. Simply amazing!