“At first I planned to get enough of them together to mount a complete dinosaur skeleton, however, erecting such a skeleton is a long and costly task for an individual to undertake so I abandoned the idea and proceeded to use them the best way I could.” Thomas Boylan (builder of Fossil Cabin), interview, 1938
Kuiper is taking a stretch break in front of the world’s only building made of DINOSAUR BONES. Fossil Cabin was originally built as a tourist attraction as part of a gas station in 1933. The site is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The building is composed of around 5800 bones and weighs around 112,000 pounds (50,800 kilos.) It used to house a museum but it’s been closed for a number of years. An interstate was built not far to the South so the smaller highway it lives on doesn’t get the traffic it used to. 🙁
also, during my research some sources suggested that the cabin might actually be a radiation hazard (and that there used to be appropriate signage.) I was unable to confirm this as my Geiger counter is in the shop. It’s plausible, though; this area (the Morrison Formation) seems to be known for radioactive fossils. Dinosaur bones aren’t really bones; they are minerals that have replaced bones. And sometimes those minerals include uranium.
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