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A Trip to the Utah Museum of Natural History

Mounted cast of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) in the old building of the "Utah Museum of Natural History" Courtesy Wikimedia, Brett Neilson, Photographer, Licensed under the Creative Commons, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Mounted cast of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) in the old building of the “Utah Museum of Natural History”
Courtesy Wikimedia, Brett Neilson, Photographer
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
When I opened the door to the special exhibit on the Ice Age at Salt Lake’s Natural History Museum, I found myself face to face with the long, looping tusks of a wooly mammoth. Once I caught my breath, I could see the mammoth’s head was painted on a piece of wood, but the tusks were 3 dimensional and towered above me – about 10 feet in the air and stretching out to about 9 feet. This magnificent mammal, now extinct, was well adapted to living on an icy planet. Its hair grew as long as 35 inches and its skin was slightly over 3 inches thick. By comparison, the museum pointed out, the modern Asian elephant has little or no hair and its skin is less than an inch thick.

The special ice age exhibit has left Salt Lake, but a visit to the Museum of Natural History is always a treat. Its skeleton of a mammoth clearly conveys a feeling for its massive size. Also looking huge is their skeleton of a giant sloth, standing 8 feet high and sporting a hand claw over 12 inches long. Back when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, some explorers found a similar claw in a cave in Virginia and sent it to him.. Jefferson quickly sent off an urgent message to Lewis and Clark on their trek west to keep an eye out for this fiercesome beast. As it turns out, the giant sloth was extinct and had just been a vegetarian who lived mostly in the trees. The giant sloth used the claw to pull tree branches closer so he could eat the leaves.

If you walk down the museum ramp leading away from the giant sloth, you leave the Ice Age and go deeper back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs. You pass by a prehistoric crocodile and a giant birdlike creature standing on large, three toed claw feet. This bird would run down its prey at speeds as high as 30 mph. Soon you arrive at a section of glass flooring, exposing a massive jumble of bones underfoot. You have arrived at the exhibit on Utah’s unique Cleveland-Lloyd quarry. In the early 1900’s, some cowboys and sheepherders noticed some large bones sticking out of a hillside about 30 miles away from the current town of Price. The scientific community was alerted, and digging at the site began. To this day, over 10,000 bones have been unearthed, and the majority identified as belonging to predator dinosaurs. But we still don’t know how or why this massive bone yard was created.

Four paleontologists have stepped forward and offered their best guess as to why so many dinosaur bones are here. One by one these four men appear on video screens along the museum path. The first one says this was once a watering hole. The dinosaurs came to drink, but the watering hole dried up. The dinosaurs died of thirst.

Oh no, said the second. There was actually too much water. The mud surrounding the watering hole became so deep the dinosaurs got stuck in the mud.

The third agreed that the dinosaurs came to the site to drink. But somehow the water had become contaminated. The dinosaurs drank and died of poison.

The fourth simply said the dinosaurs had died somewhere else, and the bones had been washed down to this site.

It’s still a mystery waiting to be solved.

In the meantime, the work of discovery goes on. Fossils are being found, and the promising ones are wrapped in plaster casts and sent to the lab. You can look in the lab windows as you exit the museum. A crew of staff and volunteers in white lab coats are picking up small hammers, picks and dentist drills. Slowly, carefully, they are cutting back the layers of time.

The answer to the question about the origin of Utah’s dinosaur bone yard seems to still lie just around the corner.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy Wikimedia and US Bureau of Land Management
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman Utah Public Radio upr.org
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Wild About Utah Postings

Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, http://nhmu.utah.edu
301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108

Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Department of the Interior, https://www.blm.gov/visit/cleveland-lloyd-dinosaur-quarry

Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Jurassic National Monument, US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Department of the Interior, https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/jurassic-national-monument/photos

Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry: Paleontological Resource Management, https://yout-ube.com/watch?v=YotsxDLDMSE

Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry: The Interpretive Center, US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Department of the Interior, https://yout-ube.com/watch?v=YotsxDLDMSE

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Ski Resorts and Utah Wild Lands

Ski Resorts and Utah Wild Lands: Ski Run Courtesy Pixabay, Michael Haderer a.k.a. haderer17, contributor
Ski Run
Courtesy Pixabay, Michael Haderer a.k.a. haderer17, contributor
Several years ago, we placed a bird feeder near the lodge at Beaver Mountain Ski Area in Logan Canyon thinking it would attract some interest by the many thousands of skiers passing through. Later, we added another bird feeder nearby for the Sageland Collaborative project on the black crown rosy finch in a less disturbed location. All of Utah’s ski resorts reside on high value wildlife habitats and watersheds, mostly on or surrounded by US Forest Service land.

Black Rosy-Finch Leucosticte atrata Courtesy & Copyright Jack Binch, Photographer
Black Rosy-Finch
Leucosticte atrata
Courtesy & Copyright Jack Binch, Photographer

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch Leucosticte tephrocotis Courtesy & Copyright Jack Binch, Photographer Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Leucosticte tephrocotis
Courtesy & Copyright Jack Binch, Photographer

Ski resorts often considered “sacrifice areas”, having replaced natural landscapes with service roads, power lines, lift lines, waste disposal sites, and building structures. Artificial lighting and sound produce additional impacts.

A number of resorts have implemented management plans to reduce their imprints on our watersheds and wildlife habitat, viewsheds (aesthetics), and reducing their carbon emissions to mitigate climate change. Ski resorts and the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) have sponsored the Sustainable Slopes Initiative, implementing water and energy saving measures, providing public transportation to the ski hill, and much more. In the U.S., over 200 ski areas are committed to the Sustainable Slopes certification designed by the NSSA, including Beaver Mountain, Brian Head, and most other Utah ski resorts.

Many resorts have partnered with groups to create innovative programs that restore public lands surrounding resorts making a positive impact on the natural world by conserving and dedicating areas for wildlife and conservation. Conservation measures may include the restoration and construction of natural habitats, investing in tree planting regimes as carbon sinks for CO2 emissions, designing facilities and trails to minimize human impact on the natural landscapes, and giving special consideration to sensitive animal species.

Demonstrating the successful implementation of this initiative is Alta Ski Area. The Alta Environmental Center (AEC) has effectively planted native trees to counter deforestation, while also reclaiming wetlands to offset the impact of the resort’s ski lift. Alta runs unique programs for guests, including opportunities like Birding on Skis and Snowshoe with a Naturalist.
Brian Head resort recently initiated a “Ski with a Ranger” program where a Dixie National Forest ranger will lead skiers on discussing a Forest Service conservation project. I did the same at Beaver Mountain when working as a Wilderness Ranger. My talks included interpreting the local natural history and ecology of the area where I patrolled in the Naomi Wilderness Area. The Wilderness Act and what it entailed was also included.

Beaver Mountain has just opened their new lodge using green building materials, day lighting and energy efficient HVAC systems. It includes a gift shop, where I suggested they include a Beaver Book Nook with books on the natural and human history of the area, and books on beaver and winter wildlife for children.

Brian Head is tripling the size of its footprint in a major expansion on US Forest Service land which requires complying with the NEPA process which mandates they minimize their disturbance on the land.

This is Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society and I’m Wild about Utah’s ski resorts keeping Utah Wild.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy Pixabay, Michael Haderer a.k.a. haderer17, contributor
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections and
Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman..
Text & Voice: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading Links: Jack Greene & Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Wild About Utah Pieces by Jack Greene, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Environment, Alta Ski Area, https://www.alta.com/environment

Sustainability, Brian Head Resort, https://www.brianhead.com/sustainability/

Gillman, Andrew Dash, The Legacy of Beaver Mountain Ski Resort, Utah Office of Tourism, https://www.visitutah.com/articles/legacy-of-beaver-mountain

Peters, Greg M., The Future of Ski Resorts on Public Lands, National Forests Foundation, Winter/Spring 2014, https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/light-and-seed-magazine/the-future-of-ski-resorts-on-public-lands

FIS Sustainability Guide for Ski Resorts (.pdf), FIS, the “Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard” or the “International Ski and Snowboard Federation”, https://assets.fis-ski.com/f/252177/x/93a1eb34fa/sustainability_skiguide_final.pdf

Sustainable Slopes, The National Ski Areas Association, https://www.nsaa.org/NSAA/Sustainability/Sustainable_Slopes/NSAA/Sustainability/Sustainable_Slopes.aspx?hkey=3d832557-06a2-4183-84cb-c7ee7e12ac4a

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Arctic Dreams

My well-worn copy of Artic Dreams by Barry Lopez, Cover Courtesy Alaska Stock Images, © Johnny Johnson, R. E. Johnson Photographers, Maps illustrated by David Lindroth, Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell
My well-worn copy of Artic Dreams by Barry Lopez
Cover Courtesy Alaska Stock Images, © Johnny Johnson, R. E. Johnson Photographers
Maps illustrated by David Lindroth
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell
“This is an old business, walking slowly over the land with an appreciation of its immediacy to the senses and what lies hidden in it.” -Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

Snowflakes Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell
Snowflakes
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Logan Canyon Tree Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Logan Canyon Tree
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Logan Canyon Forest Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Logan Canyon Forest
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Logan Canyon Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Logan Canyon
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

The snow came late this year. If it is a measuring stick, Beaver Mountain ski area, in Logan Canyon, did not open before Christmas for the first time since 1977. The lifts started turning the last day of 2025.

Every tree, every elk and deer, every squirrel, every insect, every living thing in the Bear River Mountains prepared for winter weeks, even months, ago. The whole range seemed to sit in eerie limbo, waiting for the snow to fly.

This past week, I found myself pondering the immense weight of the world in the midst of the first real winter storm of the season—at least for me. I looked up from my feet at millions of snowflakes descending upon me, crisscrossing one another in a flurry. I’m talking about giant conglomerate snowflakes. The kind that transform the sky into a straight-up dreamland. I felt pure delight.

The other day, I pulled Barry Lopez’s 1986 New York Times best seller, Arctic Dreams, from my bookshelf and browsed the passages I had highlighted or underlined 25 years ago. Until his death in 2020, Lopez wrote his books on an IBM Selectric III typewriter.

Lopez asked the questions, “How do people imagine the landscapes they find themselves in?” and “How does the land shape the imaginations of the people who dwell in it?”

I imagined each snowflake as gift from the Pacific. Tiny droplets of frozen water meandering to the ground. Each is part of an endless cycle of water, dating back to the origins of the earth. I wondered how long ago these snowflakes last fell free through the sky. How long did they spend in the depths of the ocean? Where will they go on their journey from here? And how did I happen to be in this place, with these snowflakes, in this moment in time?

Everything is temporary—a snowflake, a lifetime, human history, even geologic time.

In another passage Lopez wrote: “Because [humans] can circumvent evolutionary law, it is incumbent upon [us], say evolutionary biologists, to develop another law to abide by if [we] wish to survive…. [We] must learn restraint. [We] must derive some other, wiser way of behaving toward the land.”

To that I would add, we must also derive some other, wiser way of behaving towards one another because the greatest threat to humanity is, frankly, humanity. The biggest threat to life on earth isn’t the sun’s eventual demise or a rouge asteroid. It is us. Can we learn to live sustainably, and can we learn to understand and respect those who are different from ourselves?

Later, Lopez continues the thought:

“The cold view to take of our future is that we are therefore headed for extinction in a universe of impersonal chemical, physical, and biological laws. A more productive, certainly more engaging view, is we have the intelligence to grasp what is happening, the composure not to be intimidated by its complexity, and the courage to take steps that may bare no fruit in our lifetimes.”

That requires collective action.

As Oscar Schindler identified in Schindler’s List, power is when we have every justification to take, or to control, or to act on impulse, and we don’t. We refrain.

Each snowflake individually seems insignificant, but together, relentless by the millions, snow crystals pile up. They cover the ground, flock the trees, and settle into the gaps of my jacket. Their strength is in their numbers and their ability to bond with each other.

I imagine snow accumulating on a steep mountain. As the storm rages, the sheer weight of snow increases, one single snowflake at the time, until finally, one seemingly insignificant snowflake settles on the surface, and it is suddenly too much for buried weak layers to withstand. Then, “Whoomph!” The result is a spontaneous avalanche. Inertia is both a property of matter and a property of culture.

In the big scheme of geologic time and human history, each of us are insignificant. Yet the power of our collective consciousness and action is significant. We have the capacity to lesson our footprint on the earth and deepen our impact on one another through small gestures that accumulate like falling snow: To consume less, to care more, to increase our capacity to love and understand, to be both frugal and generous, to be curious rather than judgmental, to smile or laugh with a stranger or a friend.

I catch several snowflakes on my tongue, as I walk through the blizzard, trying to pick out the biggest ones—the ones that are barely able to cling together. Several snowflakes crash-land on my face. I blink them off my eyelashes. One flake that I miss, spirals as it falls faster than the others. Each snowflake feels like a blessing from above that represents some kind of hope. Hope that the rivers will swell to fill their banks in April and May; hope that high mountain springs will gush throughout summer, hope for renewal that comes with each spring, and yes, hope for humanity.

I am Eric Newell, and I am wild about Utah snow and the power of small gestures.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin
Text: Eric Newell, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University
Additional Reading: Eric Newell

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah Pieces by Eric Newell

Links:
Caswell, Kurt, His Life Helped: In Memory of Barry Lopez, 1945-2020, Terrain.org, Terrain Publishing, January 11, 2021, https://www.terrain.org/2021/currents/his-life-helped/

Barry Lopez died on December 25th
The proselytiser for a different understanding of landscape and Nature was 75, The Economist Newspaper Limited, https://www.economist.com/obituary/2021/01/02/barry-lopez-died-on-december-25th

O’Connell, Nicholas, At One With The Natural World Barry Lopez’s adventure with the word & the wild, March 24, 2000, Commonweal Magazine, https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/one-natural-world-0

Beaver Mountain [Ski Resort], https://www.skithebeav.com/

Logan Avalanche Forecast Page, Utah Avalanche Center, https://utahavalanchecenter.org/forecast/logan

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Lytle Ranch

Lytle Ranch Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Lytle Ranch
Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Earning national recognition as a birding hotspot the “Lytle Ranch” is a destination for birders from across the nation and beyond. But that is only a portion of what this ranch offers to me or anyone else with an interest in nature. When I visit the ranch, located in the extreme Southwest corner of Utah I find myself at an elevation of 2,000 feet. in a riparian environment on the edge of the Beaver Dam River completely surrounded by hills carpeted with Joshua Trees that define the Mojave Desert. Fresh water running through this desert has given rise to an incredible diversity of life.

Dudley Leavitt, Courtesy Marshall Topham
Dudley Leavitt
Courtesy Marshall Topham

Joshua Tree, Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Joshua Tree
Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Phainopepla, Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Phainopepla
Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Desert Iguana, Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Desert Iguana
Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

Utah Banded Gecko, Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer Utah Banded Gecko
Courtesy and Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer

The Lytle ranch has an interesting history. It was originally homesteaded in 1870’s by the Dudley Leavitt family in a remote location Southwest of St. George to avoid prosecution for polygamy. In 1889, Dudley’s daughter, Hannah Louisa, the third wife of Thomas Terry took over the ranch. They cultivated hay, cattle, and various crops, including fruit trees. In 1912 Hanna left and her two sons, Ed and Jed Terry, continued to farm and retained ownership of the ranch. In 1928, John Eardley purchased 462 acres of that property. He and his family constructed a ranch house, reservoir, fences, ditches, and cultivated alfalfa, sorghum, melons, and various fruits. Talmage and Eleanor Marie Lytle acquired the ranch from the Eardley’s in 1952. They operated the ranch without modern utilities until 1979.

In 1983, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 462-acre property to preserve its unique natural features and wildlife. In 1985, Brigham Young University (BYU) acquired the ranch, committing to its use as a nature preserve dedicated to education and research.

Public access to Lytle Ranch property, restrooms, potable water make my visits here even more enjoyable. Reservations for primitive campsites can be made on BYU’s website. For many years I have enjoyed birding at the ranch, arriving with the expectation of being greeted by the resident Phainopeplas. During migration season it is not uncommon to identify 50+ species of birds in a day without leaving the ranch. I generally carry along my checklist of anticipated birds, downloaded from the Bean Life Science Museum website at BYU. The list was created by a friend, Merrill Webb. His incredible contributions to the ranch are memorialized with his name on benches around the ranch.

If the birds were the only attraction here it would be well worth my time. but the river and the property surrounding this riparian portion of the ranch provides a home for a wonderful array of unique flora and fauna not typically seen outside Washington County, at least in the state of Utah. There are at least 38 species of reptiles and amphibians on or near the property. My personal life list in this area includes Mojave Desert tortoise, Gila Monster, Chuckwalla, Western Banded Gecko, Desert Iguana, Mojave Rattlesnake, Speckled Rattlesnake, Desert Sidewinder, Western Lyre Snake, Western Blind Snake and Western Ground Snake, Canyon Tree Frog, Pacific Chorus Frog and Tiger Salamander, to name just a few. I have also encountered several species of fish in the river, most notably the endangered Virgin River Chub. The stream through the Mojave Desert attracts a number of mammals, such as Beaver, Mule Deer, Desert Bighorn Sheep, Cougars, Bobcats, Jack Rabbits, Cottontails, Racoons, and Ringtail Cats. Porcupines also, as well as a number, and a variety of rodents.

Every time I visit the ranch, I’m reminded of how few places there are in the state of Utah where one could go and experience such tremendous biodiversity. The diversity of both plant and animal life here is unparalleled. As I enjoy another day wandering in this special place my thoughts turn to the Leavitt’s, Terrys, Eardley’s, and Lytle’s who toiled to eke out a living here. I wonder if they appreciated or even understood how unique the biodiversity on this property was. Somehow it doesn’t seem fair that they may not have enjoyed the biodiversity here as much as I do.

I’m Wild about Lytle Ranch and Utah.
This is Professor Marshall Topham of Utah Tech University.

Credits:

Images Courtesy & Copyright Marshall Topham, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy and Copyright Dr. Kevin Colver, WildSanctuary, Soundscapes, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Marshall Topham, https://ees.utahtech.edu/faculty-staff/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah pieces by Marshall Topham https://wildaboututah.org/author/marshall-topham/

Lytle Nature Preserve, Brigham Young University, https://lytle.byu.edu/

Lytle Ranch Preserve, Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, https://lsm.byu.edu/lytle-preserve [Locate Merrill Webb Lytle Ranch Bird List on this page]