In this episode, Dave talks about growing up in rural Montana, his and his mom’s interest in dinosaur fossil hunting, and how she discovered the skeleton of the first baby dinosaur.
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Stacia Coverdell: Your mom got started with paleontology in 1917, huh?
Dave Trexler: Yeah, I was thinking about how all of this got started and my family actually homesteaded in this part of the country in 1913, same year. Eugene ser found the first dinosaur bone in this particular part of the country. And in 1917, my mother was five years old.
She found her first dinosaur bone. And the way that came about was back in those days, we didn’t have the ability to get rid of problems in cattle like we do today, you know, the flies and, things that attack cows during the hot summer months are now controlled with Oilers and, and things that they can rub on.
But back then, the only way they had to get rid of the parasites was to dip the cattle, which meant running them through a pool of water that. Film of, of Creso poured over the top of it. so it, it was kind of a messy job. You, you had to run the cow into the tank and then you had to push your head and make sure the, the body all got covered.
And then they come back out
Stacia Coverdell: mm-hmm
well, those tanks were Fu and far. So, you know, there wasn’t one on every property. In fact, there was only one in this part of the country. It was up by the, by the reservoir. And you had to trail the cattle up to the, what they called the dipping bat.
Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: and. When mother was five years old, she was for her birthday, given her very first horse. And because she had a horse, she was allowed to trail the cattle up to the dipping bet. She wasn’t allowed to dip them. because. Five year olds that had cattle litter
Stacia Coverdell: freaked out,
freaked out don’t get along too well. So there was a, a ranch foreman that was pretty much her father figure, if you will, that was quite a cowboy in his own. Right. He. Drove freight wagon from Fort shot, Fort McCloud back in the early days. And he would rode with Charlie Russell and, and all of that. Anyway, he was the person who was in charge of the ranch and actually dipping the cows. so they. This day came along when it was time to perform this task. And they trailed the cows up to the dipping rats.
And when they got there Bob, that was the foreman’s name told mother that she wasn’t allowed to help dip, but, you know, she could go over the hill side there and, and look. Pretty rocks or whatever. And, and when they’re done dipping the cattle, she’ll, you know, help trail ’em back home. And that’s what happened.
And of course, when the dipping and, and trailing was all done, Bob looked at her and said, so did you find any pretty rocks? And she pulled out her fines out of her pockets. he immediately picked one out of there and he said, you know what? This is, this is a piece of fossilized bone. This, this is something that used to be bone that was turned to stone and it’s from a prehistoric animal.
And that set the stage for her interest in fossils from then till the day she died.
Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: and of course, fast forward that till. I would say late 19 hundreds, but that would be lying. 1950s, sixties and her own boy is in the same age and interested in, in fossils. And so we went fossil, I think from the time I can remember the fossils that we found were generally. That’s pretty much what you find
Stacia Coverdell: mm-hmm ,
but that all changed in 1971.
Dave Trexler: We were out for an afternoon day off, if you will. And one of my mother and my favorite things once I got old enough was to jump on the back of my motorcycle. Put across the Prairie and, and look for whatever was lying around there. My mother and, and by extension myself were, were raised on horseback.
She loved her horses.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: and from the time I could remember. You know, the, the thing you did, what, regardless of what you were doing out there, it was always from horseback, but when I was, oh, 15 years old or so I bought a motorcycle and I liked the motorcycle because you don’t have to feed it. You don’t have to brush it.
You don’t have to take care of it other than put some gas and oil in it. It’s closer to the ground. So it’s easier to see things. So it got to be that mother would get on the back of my motorcycle and we put off across Prairie rather than getting on the back of a horse and right across the Prairie.
We, we were out up by the bottom reservoir this nice summer day in 71. Putting along and saw this little ledger sandstone just poking out of the, the Prairie grass.
And I noticed a dinosaur bone fragment lying along the edge of the, the rock layer
mm-hmm .
And so we stopped and got to looking around and there were a couple of great big chunks of this rock layer. Then there was a little chunk off to the end and there wasn’t much actually in the line of fossil fragments laying around.
They’re just coupled. But I rolled the, the little chunk over on the end and there’s bones articulated bones embedded in the rock. Hm. And I instantly knew that, you know, after all the years of wandering and looking and seeing nothing but fragments, we had finally found a part of a dinosaur, something that was,
Stacia Coverdell: Identifiable, and…
Dave Trexler: Recognizable. Yep, exactly. And of course my mother had, and dad had collected a, quite a number of things and we. A case or two in the, the shop, they ran this little rock shop here in buy. And in the back of the shop, there was a, a little area that was not for sale things that had been discovered over the years.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: and we decided that, you know, this would be one of those pieces, you know, whatever it was
Stacia Coverdell: Uhhuh
Dave Trexler: because it was actually eroding out and falling apart. And, and we knew if we left it, you know, it would be gone in a few years. So we managed to roll of the blocks over actually my stepbrother.
And I we went back and, and got him. He wasn’t much interested in fossils , but he did like a challenge. So we, we took our little Jeep pickup and managed to, to. Four wheel it down into where this block of, of rocks were. And we managed to load those two great big chunks of, of rock containing all these articulated bones and the, the little chunk that I could pick up myself.
And we brought them back. you know, put preservative on ’em and set ’em up for, for display. But of course, when you find something like that, the first question is exactly what is it? Mm-hmm so as soon as we could, my mother and I arranged. A trip over the entire state of Montana. We, we went to Glen dive and we went to Malta and we went to Glasgow and we went to Jordan and everywhere. We had heard that had dinosaurs and museums and
Stacia Coverdell: Was museum the Rockies doing dinosaurs at that point,
Dave Trexler: it was not museum of the Rockies at that point was a little local history museum in a quanset hut I think I’m not. I’m trying to remember. Yeah, it was, it was just, yeah, that was what it was. Anyway the, the trip around was a real eye opener for us. We saw a skull of a triceratops in Jordan, but the only dinosaur on display was in the little town of eco lacka, clear at the other. Stayed at the end of, at that time of gravel road and it was in their county museum in the basement of their high school. And it had been put together by a couple of ranchers, like we were, and what that made us understand was all of the books and, and papers that I had.
About dinosaurs and, and the wonderful discoveries here in Montana were all about people who had come and discovered, but left nothing behind,
Stacia Coverdell: just outta curiosity.
Dave Trexler: What was the dinosaur in ECA? It was an animal that was at that time called a Nasos. Okay. And that name has since gone away. It was called an a Titan for a while.
And now they’re referred to it just as at Montessori Andin.
Stacia Coverdell: Okay.
Dave Trexler: But it was, it was a type specimen for it’s an unusual type of duct build dinosaur. so anyway the more we traveled, the more irritated we got, because this just isn’t right. You, you know, there should be something to see where.
Something important has been found. I mean, it would be like taking Roswell and then packing up and move it to New York city. We’re taking all the mummies out of Egypt. We’re taking one monies outta Egypt, all the mummies, you know, don’t, don’t leave even one back there. It, so we decided that if there’s a little museum in Ekalaka of Montana, that can put together a dinosaur and, and have one on display, there’s a little museum in Bynum that could put together a dinosaur and have one on display. So that really started. Making, we, we turned away at that point from having just a, a couple of cases and, and things that had not for sale tags on them, right. To actually separating off a section of, of the shop and labeling it. This is a museum, nothing years for sale. This is our, our. Local history, discoveries and natural history discoveries, you know, so we actually got serious about looking for stuff to display at that point.
And you liked the story about motorcycles in 1977 I went over to Conrad. to bliss cycle sales and walked into a guy. I knew bought several motorcycles from before, told him that we had just gotten permission to look on some neighbors land that was several miles away. And my little motorcycle just would not carry mother and I that far effectively.
And I needed. So. Larger because, you know, we, we like to go hunting for dinosaurs and, you know, that was the ultimate thing was motorcycle to put along and, and look more. And he sold me this really nice. Kawasaki three 50 motorcycle and mother, and I got on it and putted around and we actually found what we were looking for.
At least we thought we did. We found a hillside with dinosaur bones sticking out of the hill. And what was sticking out was a piece of a couple of the leg bones at tibia. Fibula. And what I thought was part of a femur and some rib bones, we thought we had our dinosaur to stand up. And so we started digging on it.
Stacia Coverdell: Now at this point, did you have any idea what geologic formation you were digging in or any idea of the context, the age or anything?
Dave Trexler: I did. at that time. Of course there is no internet , but I read everything that was in print pretty much at that time, I, I had, I had become the ultimate paleo geek from that generation.
And, and that was weird because back then, you know, it wasn’t every kid’s dream to become a paleontologist. It was, you were one of the weird kids at that point, if that was. But no,
Stacia Coverdell: there wasn’t any Jurassic park phase or anything?
Dave Trexler: No, actually, if you read the original book, Jurassic park was spawned by the discovery that we made at show there. The, the very first place that. Grant goes to find his dinosaur in the original Jurassic park book is snake bite Montana, 15 miles east of Choteau, which is interesting because sites about 15 miles west of Choteau. So it it’s right there.
Stacia Coverdell: It’s closer to the airport.
Dave Trexler: There you go. so, anyway we’re, we’re.
Fairly serious. And of course, mother being raised in, in, by this original area, cowboy was taught to be quite the naturalist. The, when, when you’re one of the originals in, in an area you survived by understanding every little thing. Bob could walk out across Prairie and tell you how many animals had. Across there in the past week in which direction, and, and not only what species they were, but how big they were, whether they were male or female, you know, the guy was unbelievable. And so I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t being trained in those sorts of things. And. Of course, I’m not nearly the naturalist that my mother was in, in that respect, but I still knew the difference between a fever and a tibia by the time I was four years old and things like that.
So putting an animal together, recognizing what we were seeing, wasn’t a. Comparative anatomy, dinosaur skeletons, and human skeletons and dog skeletons are for 90% level the same there, it’s just the minor differences that allow you to separate out what species or, or what it actually is.
Stacia Coverdell: Well, I imagine you butchered a, quite a few animals in your time.
Dave Trexler: Oh yeah. Well, . That’s part of growing up in the middle of nowhere, Montana and yeah, we, you know, we had to take our animals from births to being beef steak on the table, as well as. Other things. So, yeah, we, we got our sheriff comparative anatomy as well but anyway, when we found this site, that was to me my dream come true.
Hope it turns out it was not my mother’s my mother. Liked to go and look turns out she really did not like to date. So
Stacia Coverdell: it’s a little tedious out there in the sun. It is.
Dave Trexler: And the more you do it, the more tedious it can become frustrating, especially when the bones are powdery and where you have to try. Preserve as you go, you, if you lose something out there, if your powdered bone has a little wind storm blow, that removes the part of it, you can’t get that back
Stacia Coverdell: uhhuh
Dave Trexler: so whatever you do. At the start is going to determine what you end up with because it’s a one way process. So, you know, oh, in all of my reading, there was a, at that time, a chemical that was being used. In the field and in the lab to preserve fossils called ol, and it was this stable plastic material that was supposed to be, you know what you used to preserve fossil bones,
Stacia Coverdell: Uhhuh, but is that the one that killed everybody?
Dave Trexler: I tried to get some because I knew we. Some sort of preservative. And I found out that they had just recalled all of it because it turns out that a lot of the professional fossil preparators were dying because the stuff turned out to be this horrible carcinogen and the liver destroyer. It actually killed quite a number of people. So we didn’t have as paleontologist anything to replace it at that time. So we had to revert back to what we had before glyphtol to came along. And that was Shelac and , you know, here, here’s this substance that’s horrible, messy to work. Then, and it doesn’t penetrate well, but you know, at least it keeps the, the oxygen away and it glues things together enough that, you know, the little breeze isn’t going to blow your bone away.
But The problem with Shelac is it has to be recod every year or two, because it deteriorates rapidly. It’s, you know, it’s not a stable compound, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s what we had back then. That was, that was all we had to work with. So, you know, our. at that point, became trying to get this dinosaur, Doug assembled and stood up in our little museum.
And by that time I had actually met someone and gotten married and, and my wife, Laurie and I, and my mother would then go out and, you know, spend our evenings or, you know, weekend days or whatever. Doing the, the digging and, and
Stacia Coverdell: mm-hmm,
Dave Trexler: recovering and because it was slow, so slow and tedious because of the limited chemicals and things. We have it so much nicer now. but anyway it got to be a fair habit that we’d go out and dig for a couple hours. And then mother would go and wander and leave us to finish whatever digging we were doing and put sight to bed and, and pack up the tools. And she’d meet us back at the vehicle
Stacia Coverdell: mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: And this one evening we are headed back to the vehicle and here’s mother sitting. This little mounted dirt, no higher than this table. And she’s got this big smile on her face and she says, look what I found. And she held up this little bitty, dinosaur vertebra. Mm-hmm obviously, you know, babies something rather. And you can tell babies from adults. Baby bones are not well formed. You don’t have the, the hard outside surface that, that grows kind
of all the [cords] inside.
Yeah. You know, any, all animals when they’re first born are born with the spongy bone and that’s basically what. What bone is until you have a year or two of growth and, and develop the, the, you know, compact bone that coats the outside.
So anyway, we were looking at that and I was just really. excited because not only was there a little vertebrae there, I picked up a little section of a jaw bone, and I, you know, again, from knowing what I was reading and, and what have you knew that we had a little piece of a jaw from a duck bill dinosaur
Stacia Coverdell: because of the, tooth rows in.
Dave Trexler: It’s the only animal that’s built that they, the death built dinosaurs were the most wonderful critters that they had the ultimate grinding apparatus in, in their jaws.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: the average animal, what we’re accustomed to the mammals.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: we have a couple sets of teeth and when they fall, fall out, they’re all, we’re all done.
These dinosaurs had little rows. Holes along the bottom of their jaw, that new tooth buds could implant their entire lives
Uhhuh.
And these animals had up to 1200 teeth in their mouth at any given time and they would just keep growing teeth and growing teeth. And as they wore a old teeth, new ones would come in and replace ’em.
But that creates this. Interesting. What we call it, dental battery that is unique in the animal kingdom. So when you see one of them, you pretty well know you’ve got a duck bill dinosaur.
Stacia Coverdell: Now don’t CINs have that too. Ceratops have
Dave Trexler: the same. Type of, of grinding apparatus, but the teeth shape and, and the teeth are double rooted instead of single rooted and okay.
They look a lot different.
Stacia Coverdell: Okay. So baby duck, bill jaw,
Dave Trexler: baby duck, bill jaw. And that was. Exciting cuz now not only we got an adult duck bill that we’re gonna be able to stand up, we’ve got maybe a baby duck bill that we can stand up next to it and show, you know, cuz here here’s an animal. That’s, that’s this lump and, and here’s adult, that’s gonna be in the 20, 25 foot long range.
So you know, we’ve got, you know, the, the entire growth range apparently, you know, So, you know, the next couple weeks. Well, other than a few rainstorms that kept us from getting out there, we, we spent every chance we could out there.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm . Now, were you working on the, the adults still, or did you focus on the babies more?
Dave Trexler: We actually were working on both. I didn’t find any place where the babies were coming out of the ground, Uhhuh . And one of the things that we discovered the hard way on that first site was if you go to digging, before you pick up all of the pieces, the stuff you dig covers up those pieces and it makes it really hard to find them again.
So it became, you know, even at that time, my habit of surface collecting everything first. And then
Stacia Coverdell: mm-hmm
Dave Trexler: and of course you don’t dig unless you see where something’s sticking out and, and it tells you to dig here
Stacia Coverdell: Uhhuh.
Dave Trexler: So at that time we were digging on the adults. and we were surface collecting the, the baby bits. We were each time we would go out there, we would find another 10 or 15 baby bones.
Stacia Coverdell: Mm-hmm.
Dave Trexler: And so it was we had somewhere upward to 200 baby bones collected. Midsummer of 1978 when these two guys walked into the, the shop and were looking around the, the museum and one guy introduced himself as Jack Horner
