Dinosaurs under the Aurora

5. Texas, Teachers, and Chinooks: Taking Fieldwork to a New Level

67 5 TEXAS, TEACHERS, AND CHINOOKS Taking Fieldwork to a New Level Over 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) of rugged mountains and high plains separate Alaska’s North Slope and Dallas, Texas, today. Most people would not think of Texas and Alaska as being close in any way. But there is quite a history that brings Alaska and Texas much closer than their current geography would ever suggest. In terms of “deep time,” they were once connected by a great Cretaceous age interior seaway and long food-rich shorelines that supported abundant populations of duck-billed and horned dinosaurs. In recent times, petroleum technology and economics have closely bound Alaska to Texas and other so-called “oil patch” states.1 The Texas connection doesn’t stop at the two paleontologists at the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, Texas Memorial Museum in Austin, Texas, who were the first to study and describe the dinosaur bones collected by Robert Liscomb. Another colleague from Texas, Anthony (Tony) Fiorillo from the Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas, first joined me during the field season of 1998, and we have been working together on the record of Alaska’s Arctic dinosaurs ever since. Tony was responsible for involving me in paleontological surveys for the National Park Service at Denali National Park and Preserve and Katmai National Park and Preserve. These programs ultimately laid the foundation for discoveries of the first evidence of dinosaurs in Denali National Park and at Aniakchak National Monument (see figure 2.1).2 Tony had extensive experience with vertebrate taphonomy and a history of working with the National Park Service. This combination broadened and strengthened the research on dinosaurs in Alaska—something that was needed, since I was one of only two vertebrate paleontologists employed full-time in the entire state of Alaska. By 2005, a close-working relationship with Tony had resulted in the securing of several small grants, including one from the Jurassic Foundation, and a large National Science Foundation grant, as well as several coauthored journal papers and presentations at professional meetings. Dinosaurs under the Aurora 68 The years 2001 to 2005 witnessed a remarkable coming together of support, resources, and recognition for the Arctic Alaska Dinosaur Program.3 This period would also include my retirement from the University of Alaska. The main event of this remarkable period, was the repartnering between the University of California Museum of Paleontology and the University of Alaska Museum in the dinosaur program. This resumption of a partnership between the two institutions added a new aspect to the relationship. The partnership was based on combining the very successful teacher outreach program at the University of California Museum of Paleontology with the field research on the North Slope that had defined the Arctic Alaska Dinosaur Program . Judy Scotchmoor, who was director of outreach and public programs at Berkeley had been a volunteer for the dinosaur program in 1999 and enthusiastically proposed that a group of teachers from California be brought up to Alaska as participants in a geoscience program. Funding was secured through a Geoscience Education grant from the National Science Foundation, and nine teachers were selected to spend a month during the summer of 2002 in Alaska. The teachers received instruction and firsthand experience in geology and paleontology during a traverse from Anchorage to Fairbanks and then, after further instruction at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, proceeded up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay and the Deadhorse Airport (see figure 1.2). The teachers then flew by bush plane from Deadhorse to the Poverty Bar base camp on the Colville River. Another exciting new dimension to the field program was that it would receive the logistical support of the U.S. Army in Alaska. Dave Norton and I worked closely with the commanding officer, Major Lissa Young, and her staff of B Company, 4th Battalion, 123rd Aviation Regiment, U.S. Army, Alaska. during the winter and spring of 2001–2002. The plan was to have the company’s four heavy-lift CH-47D Chinook helicopters and crews support two of our field camps with transporting field crews and gear to and from the field. In addition to the food, shelters, camp gear, and the personal gear of the expedition members, Dave, the army loadmasters, and I were to plan for the delivery of our 18-foot river boat, fuel, and engine by one of the Chinooks—not an easy task for even this famous aviation workhorse. The aviation crews of Company B...