Fossil Butte National Monument

Visited: Aug 2014

Nearby town: Kemmerer, WY

Approximately 50 million years ago, the state of Wyoming was a sub-tropical jungle paradise, completely and utterly different than its environment today. Three ancient lakes, known as the Green River Lake System, covered this region of southwestern Wyoming, northeast Utah, and northwestern Colorado. 

Today, Fossil Butte National Monument preserves one of the best paleontological record of the Cenozoic aquatic communities in the entire world. Here you will find fossilized remains of fish, sting rays, alligators, turtles, and mammals such as bats and ancient dog-sized horses (known as protorohippus). The fossils here date from the Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago), so there are no dinosaurs (they went extinct approximately 65 million years ago). 

Make sure to stop at the Visitors Center to see the amazing exhibits, watch the video and learn about the work that paleontologists do. It is truly an aquarium in stone.

turtles

many varieties of fish found here

extinct species of alligator

The next thing you should do is take the short one mile hike up to Fossil Butte. At the end of the hike, we were lucky enough to see from Park employees doing research and conducting a dig. While we were there, they found some fossilized fish, but mostly coprolite (fossilized poop).

 At the end of the trail is the dig site.

If you happen to find yourself in this corner of Wyoming, Fossil Butte is an interesting place to stop for a few hours. Make sure to spend sometime in the nearby town of Kemmerer (The Fossil Fish Capital of the World), you can shop for all kinds of fossils. You can also visit the very first J.C. Penney Store (known as "The Golden Rule"), built in 1902. For more info on the National Monument, see https://www.nps.gov/fobu/index.htm