'U-Dig Fossils' Chips Away At Ancient Trilobites
Travel To A Remote Desert To Set The Scene, And Dig Up A Creature That Existed Over 500 Million Years Ago With Fossil Quarry Owner Shayne Crapo
Around 550 million years ago shallow seas covered much of the continental United States. In those seas lived many invertebrate species including many types of trilobites. As the seas receded and geology evolved many of these prehistoric creatures were left fossilized in the mud waiting for modern man to find them.
“It’s mid Cambrian and it’s approximately 550-million-year-old rock. We mainly mine the upper 50 feet of it, which is called the Wheeler Shale, that is where we mine and there’s trilobites through it all. We have some little brachiopods that you find, there’s also algae and little phyllocardids and some soft body stuff that every once in a while, we will come up with. The majority of what we find are the trilobites”, explained Shayne Crapo owner and operator of U-Dig Fossils.
Crapo operates a fossil quarry approximately 52 miles west of Delta, Utah in an isolated part of the desert where visitors are invited to dig for their own trilobite fossils as souvenirs. “We are out in the middle of nowhere, we have signs all along the way and you can follow the directions on our website. Once they get out here, they will find that we have port-a-potties for toilets and a small office with gift shop, but they are going to find a lot of trilobites. The service we provide is pretty cool. If people put some effort into it they are going to do pretty well, we make it easy for people to find them”, claimed Crapo.
While the quarry does not have luxury accommodations, the main attraction is the fossil pit. Here visitors of all ages can play the part of paleontologist searching for millions of years old creatures. “Once they get here, they will come down to the office, we usually have someone in the office or nearby. They will have to sign a liability waiver and pay their fee for how long they will be there, we take any form of payment, and then we will show them about the pit and give them a piece of paper that shows everything they can find. It’s a fossil identification sheet and it shows examples of trilobites. They will get a hammer and a bucket and will be told where to go. The operator will usually go out there with them and spend some time with them showing them where to dig and helping them get started”, stated Crapo.
Crapo’s family has operated the mines for several years. It all started with his Uncle, who was the first person to lease the land, but the idea for creating U-Dig Fossils belongs to Crapo himself. “Really when it became popular was during the great depression, there were CCC camps out there and there were all of those roads in the desert, you got a lot of people from different areas and they became more known at that point. My uncle put a lease on it and learned the layers of rock; he dug and sold them to rock shops. My father had a rock and fossil whole sale business and a paleontological supply business in Delta. When I was in college I had this class where I had to come up with a business plan, it was an entrepreneurial class and I created a business plan for U-Dig Fossils. After I graduated I actually started the very same business back in 1994 and I’ve kept it going since”, claimed Crapo.
U-Dig Fossils offers visitors their expertise in preparing and cleaning their fossils. A lot of how the fossil is prepared depends on how the fossil was exposed in the shale. “When you find a trilobite, and it is right side up and in the rock, a lot of times you’ll just trim the rock around it and leave it there. If it’s upside down and has been well replaced, then we remove it from the rock so you can see the front. They are worth a lot more in the matrix [rock]. A lot of times trilobites are too thin. If they’re not well replaced or very thin, you just can’t remove them or they will fall apart. We’ll clean visitors’ trilobites for them and we’ll trim the rock or matrix around them down if they need us to. As far as the fossils themselves, we really help them out and take care of them”, stated Crapo.
Crapo claims that no one should walk away from the quarry empty handed. “Everyone is different. We have some people that will find one or two specimens and we have people that go out and after a couple of hours are walking away with 50. The average person in a two-hour period will find anywhere from 2-5 nicely intact specimens. They may be small, but they will be complete”, claimed Crapo.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with B.S. in wildlife and fisheries science, Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Antelope Valley RV Park, which is located at 776 West Main Street in Delta, Utah on historic Highway 6/50. This 5.44 acre oasis in high desert country boasts 150 full grown trees. It is near numerous lakes and only two miles from Gunnison Bend Reservoir.