Amateurs look for real ‘Jurassic’
RHAME. N D (AP) —
While millions pack air
conditioned theaters to
watch fictional dinosaurs
in Jurassic Park . amateur
fossil hunters are braving
NATIONAL
the element* In North Dakota's badlands to find
the real thing.
Merle Clark. 55. a randier, and Dean Pearson.
3B, a feed mill operator, are part of o group of
Bowman County volunteers working carefully
to unearth a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton They
may lie amateurs, but they've had special train
ing and gut guidance from
paleontologist a.
Only 13 other specimens of
the meat-eating giant have town
found. This particular Tyran
nosaurus. which diet! some t>5
million years ago. is entombed
in part of the Hell Creek roc.k
formation in North Dakota's
southwest corner. The adult
Tyrannosaurus was usually 20
to 23 feet tall and 40 to 4fi foot
long
“You can’t hay
when it’s raining,
but you can sure
dig a dinosaur;
we’re living proof
of that"
— Merle Clark,
Rancher turned dinosaur
Thi* group began nigging Iasi
fall, after Pearson found n sin- ———
gle fossilised bone stii king out of a steep lull
side. He took it to the Museum of the Rockies ill
Bozeman. Mont., to find uul what it was
‘We thought wo had a leg hone, but it was
nothing like we'd ever soon," Clark said
He showed It to John Horner, n well-known
paleontologist at the museum and a technical
adviser to the hit movie furtissir Park
Homer "took one look at it and said ' I -rex,
Pearson said.
“Everybody’s pretty excited about it." fie
added. "The stuff is pretty well-preserved."
The desolate site, kept secret by the group, is
surrounded In a snow fence and posted only
with a sign warning "No Admittance "
"We're not trying to hide anything," Pearson
said "We’re trying to preserve the security of
the site and prevent damage."
Its hard to imagine anyone mosey mg by. The
site is three-quarters of a mile off a little-used
gravel road, shielded by the badlands’ jagged
buttes, towering hill* and deep gullies
"We re assuming the site was not scavenged,
but until we get more uncovered we won t know
for sure." Pearson said.
The Denver Museum of Natural Hiatory and
the North Dakota Geological Survey have been
providing export advice. Thirty-six residents
have gone through hours of paleontology train
ing on their own time.
Whatever bone* are uncovered at the site are
destined for the new Pioneer Trails Mu.seum, a
small volunteer-run operation in nearby How
man with an undinosaur-like annual budget of
$750 ond plenty of space for
new exhibits
Clark said about 15 volun
teers make up the core of the
group and others help when
they can. No one is paid
"A lot of people do it for
money There's more to it than
that," said Laurie Oakland,
who ranchos and digs for fos
sils with her husband. Jeff
"I enjoy it," she said, her
boots caked with a gooey c lay
nunier Known mcauy as gumou.
- "Something OS million years
old is in there and we're going to be the first
humans to see it "
Karlv last week, eight volunteers worked 20
feel up n steep hillside to remove Ions of dirt and
day and carve out a bone lied roughly 30 by 40
lee!
Wind and rain — from clouds so low they
appeared within reach — pelted them but they
didn't stop.
"You can't hay when it's raining, but you tjsji
sure dig a dinosaur; we're living proof of that."
Clark said
Some worried about lightning, but after a
momentary pause for a flap of thunder they con
tinued to work
And when the sky began to c lear, someone
remarked that they might lie able to work until
sunset, which comes around 9 p.m this time
of year
Jurassic Park and the movie theater are far
away.
Demonstrators ask
president to release
hidden UFO files
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first time Natra was taken aboard a
starship, she was only fi anil told nobod\ about it be< ause they
would have thought her crazy. Now she talks freely about having
traveled at the speed of light.
Natra — who would not give her last name — took part in a
demonstration Monday in front of the White House to demand that
President Clinton make "full disclosure of government UFO secrets
and an open, public inquiry into the phenomena."
Forty-five people marched in a circle, i nrrving signs They were
outnumbered by reporters.
Natra was a popular interview because she was one of the few to
claim ridership on UFOs Most of the others bad merely seen some
thing. or read something, or felt a visit from something.
Natra actually was manifested — the proper term, she said —
aboard starships, hundreds of them since that first ride.
lust recently, she said, she was aboard a starship and the inhabi
tants — they could have been Gleatians, or Orions or from Sirius —
showed her a computer panel with different colored lights. Sirius is
the brightest star in the sky.
"I [iut mv hand on a light and whoosh. I now know how it feels
to move at the speed of light, she said. 1 was flying the craft, it was
so fast that no words can express it."
The demonstration was bv "Operation Right to Know" a small
group that believes the government is withholding 20,000 pages of
doi uments that proves the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects,
including the retrieval of a i rashed flying saucer in New Mexico in
1047.
The pit kills attracted little attention, partly because it was so hot
that only trim believers and reporters would venture out in merciless
heat President Clinton was in San Francisco, en route to the ot o
nornir. summit in Tokyo.
"This demonstration is more important than any demonstration
ever held in Washington, D C." said Hal McKenzie. an organizer
from Maryland "This one affects everyone. We are here to let the
world know and here to tell the government, no more lies."
It was the second White House demonstration in the IJFO cause
|.nst year the pickets were only Mi Kenzie and Ed Komarek. who
came to Washington from his home in rural Georgia
Komarek likened his cause to the civil rights movement, which
also got started with demonstrations "We are not here to tell people
what to believe." he said. "We just want to get them information."
Nairn said she communicates with space aliens telepathically. (list
last week, she said, she was taken aboard a starship and was given
an implant — to give her the energy to communicate, she said, with
those strange beings in Washington, the news media.
Operation Rescue promises hot summer for abortion clinics
CLEVELAND (AP) — With
Operation Rest nit targeting clin
u s in seven slaiits for its summer
antiabortion campaign. i itius
and abortion « linn s far and wide
vvitrit making plans of Ihitir own
to keep tilings calm
Next weekend. Opnratmii Res
i:llt! Logins a 10-da\ "Cities of
Refuge" domoiistrution aimed at
i.losing i Imii s in C'loveland: Mill
neapolis-St. Paul. Minn.; San
lose, Calif.; Philadelphia. Dallas
and Fort Worth, Texas |a< k.xon.
Miss ; and several cities in cen
tral Florida.
“Anyone in the continental
U S will he within a day's dri
ve of a rescue," said Operation
Rescue spokeswoman Wendy
Wright
111 spring there were
more than 600 arrests during
Operation Rom ue protests in Huf
falo. N.Y. In summer 1991.
Wi< hitn, Kan.. polii e made more
than 2.700 arrests in a 4li-day
clinic blockade .Some protesters
were arrested morji than once.
Even as plans (or the protests
unfold, the target cities are
preparing
• Two Cleveland suburbs last
week banned picketing in resi
dents' driveways, obstructing
traffit and disturbing the peace
at a residence. Abortion oppo
nents often demonstrate outside
the homes of doctors, nurses and
other 11 inis staff members The
San lose City Council passed a
similar measure after doctors
complained about getting threat
ening letters from abortion pro
testers
• The Philadelphia and San
Jose city count ils have made it
illegal to prevent patients from
entering abortion clinics.
• Police in St Paul haveerei t
ed an ti-foot-high. chain-link
fence around the Planned Par
enthood t line Officers guard the
gates.
• A Cleveland television sta
tion said police will convert the
city convention center into a jail
to feed, house and try hundreds
of detainees. Police would not
comment on the report
"We're planning for the worst
We re ready for anything that
comes down the pike,** said
Philadelphia police Inspector
John Norris.
Kric Johns. 21, and his wife.
Michelle, have been in Jackson,
Miss . since May. preparing to
protest there
"We hope to put these places
out of business, expose abor
tionists to their community,
embarrass them for what they do.
expose staff workers a! these
places and eventually shut down
1Anyone in the
continental U.S.
will be within a
day's drive of a
rescue
— Wendy Wright,
Operation Rescue
spokeswoman
lilt? whole grisly abortion indus
try m the state of Mississippi."
Johns said
"! think I hove a biblical
responsibility and am com
manded by God to do what I'm
doing."
Johns expects the protests to be
confrontational but nonviolent
In Texas. Operation Rescue
spokesman Tom t’.yr said his
group has targeted 13 clinics and
some doctors' homes in Dallas
and Fort Worth. Activists will
pray, protest and offer "sidewalk
counseling."
At abortion clinics around the
country, staff members are
intensely making ready.
"People should think about
what Operation Rescue is going
to cost them in taxes to pay for
the extra police offii ers and secu
rity on duty And then maybe the
people would help keep these
people from coming to our city."
said Carol Westfall, Cleveland
Surgi-Center spokeswoman
"They will not close us down.
If a patient wants an abortion, we
will figure out a way to get them
in the clinic,” said Jeanie Hollis,
spokeswoman for the Mississip
pi Women's Medical Clinii in
jackson.
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