Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming

Every so often I browse through my old photos, partially for nostalgia, partially to see if there’s something interesting in there.  I’m especially fond of revisiting the 1990s —  years when our boys were in grade school.  We did a lot of traveling with our kids in the USA and Canada during that time.

Map showing the location of Fossil Butte (courtesy of the National Park Service)

One of our trips took us to a small (13 square miles), remote and rarely visited National Monument in southwestern Wyoming, Fossil Butte.

Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming

Fossil Butte contains the remains of plants and animals that lived in a freshwater lake (Fossil Lake) about 52 million years ago.  The fossil collection here is very well preserved and shows a great diversity, with many fish and smaller numbers of turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, even insects and plants.

What I most remember about our visit was the chance to visit a dig site on one of the hills.  It was amazingly hot that summer day and the walk up to the site was quite tiring.  But once we were there the kids got into it and pitched in.  They soon lost interest but we got to see a few fish fossils before we headed off in the direction of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Our older son, Bryan, holding a portion of a fish fossil.
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1 month ago

Nice find. I will have to put it on my list.

Marilyn Jones
1 month ago

What a cool experience. I had never heard of Fossil Butte National Monument before. Excellent post!

Admin
30 days ago

We have been there!

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