Bone Cabin Quarry

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Excavation at Bone Cabin Quarry, 1898

Bone Cabin Quarry lies approximately fifteen miles north of Laramie, Wyoming near historic Como Bluff. During the summer of 1897 Walter W. Granger, a paleontologist from the American Museum of Natural History, came upon a hillside littered with Jurassic period dinosaur bone fragments. Nearby was a sheepherder's cabin built entirely out of fossil bones, hence the name "Bone Cabin Quarry." It is possible, although unverifiable, that the Bone Cabin Quarry was originally discovered by Frank Williston, the brother of Samuel Wendell Williston, an assistant to Othniel Charles Marsh.^{[citation needed]} No claim or record was made of it, however, so, for historical and scientific purposes, no discovery was made before Granger. After Granger's discovery in late August of 1897, the quarry was kept secret until the summer of 1898, when the manpower could be amassed to undertake a full scale excavation. Bone Cabin Quarry was excavated from 1898 until 1905, when the productivity of specimens thinned. Some of the dinosaurs found at the Bone Cabin Quarry include Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Apatosaurus.

From the Annual Field Report of the American Museum of Natural History, 1898:

On June 12th a rich strike was made in opening "Bone Cabin Quarry". This is where the larger part of the year's collection was secured. The work was arduous and additional help was needed. P. Kaisen was engaged at the end of June. The party stayed here until the close of the field season on October 1st.

[edit] Nine Mile Quarry

About five miles southwest of Bone Cabin Quarry, a further quarry, called Nine Mile Quarry, was opened up in June 1899, near Nine Mile Crossing of the Little Medicine Creek. An incomplete Apatosaurus skeleton was recovered (at the time referred to Brontosaurus.)