Dinosaur National Monument: A Study of the Evolution of Private Sector—Public Sector Support of Science in the West

I n the early twentieth century America's first paleontologists looked to the West as a vast storehouse of information. The region was a wondrous place, with a myriad of natural resources ripe for exploitation. Among these riches, a few paleontological discoveries were eventually deemed worthy of permanent protection under the aegis of the National Park Sei'vice. The history of one such scientific treasure, Dinosaur National Monument, provides a case study of the shift in scientific funding from private to public sources. Located in extreme northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah, the present 325-square-mile park comprises rugged canyons along the Green and Yampa rivers. Fewer than eighty acres of that area contain the original quarry that attracted the interest of privately sponsored fossil hunters at the turn of the century. Private donors originally supported the scientific investigations of the quarry, but when philanthropic support dwindled, once— privately funded scientists sought federal funding to continue their inquiries. The federal government, recognizing the quarry's uniqueness, protected the area under the 1906 Antiquities Act.