At my Kindergarten graduation circa 2005, I stood watching my friends confidently announce their future dreams. One by one, they rattled off their answers to the phrase, “When I grow up, I want to be…” I was surrounded by future firefighters, ballerinas, nurses, doctors, and professional soccer players. When it was my turn to walk across the stage and announce my dreams to the crowd, there was no doubt in my mind what I wanted to say. “When I grow up, I want to be a Paleontologist.”
Fast forward twenty years, and my dreams have taken all kinds of twists and turns, and I am now studying to earn my Master’s Degree in Science Education through Walking Mountains and the University of Northern Colorado. But that kindergarten voice still echoes in my mind. Just recently, I began to reconnect to this dream by digging into Eagle County’s prehistoric past.
These fossils, collected by local students, help paint a picture of Colorado over 320 million years ago.
Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life that involves the analysis of plant and animal fossils. Paleo means ‘old’ or ‘ancient’ in Greek; therefore, Paleontology is the study of ancient things. Eagle County has a rich prehistoric history with ancient evidence often hiding in plain sight. Visit the hills of McCoy, a small town near the Northern Board of Eagle County, and you will be transported back over 300 million years into Colorado’s past. There, lying on the surface, you might find fossilized crinoids or brachiopods, perhaps even a spiraled gastropod! The remnants of these fascinating creatures provide evidence of a shallow ocean that once covered Colorado approximately 320 million years ago. During the school year, Walking Mountains offers 4th and 6th-grade students in Eagle County the opportunity to time-travel back into the late Paleozoic Era to discover how Eagle County has changed over time.
Students from Eagle County Schools examine fossils near McCoy, Colorado, at a Walking Mountains School Science Program.
A few miles away in Edwards, you can visit the Museum at Dinosaur Junction and fast forward over a hundred million years from McCoy and discover the more well-known giants that roamed Eagle Valley. Billy Doran, Paleontologist and Dinosaur Hunter and long-time Eagle County local, has curated an awe-inspiring collection of dinosaurs from right here in our backyards spanning over 200 million years from the Triassic continuing through the Jurassic and into the Cretaceous periods.
After visiting the Museum at Dinosaur Junction for the first time and observing Billy Doran’s passion surrounding these ancient creatures, I was inspired to design a program at Walking Mountains. It was one sentence in particular that sparked my curiosity. He believes people are so interested in dinosaurs and prehistoric life because it is the closest thing we have to an imaginary world. From the lore of dragons to attempting to imagine the largest animals to ever roam the Earth, our innate child-like sense of wonder and imagination ignite in the study of Paleontology.
The Museum at Dinosaur Junction captivated Walking Mountains employees during their annual staff retreat last Fall.
As graduate fellows, we have unique opportunities that allow us to directly apply our graduate coursework to our work as educators at Walking Mountains. Through our Curriculum Design class offered last Fall, the Passionate Paleontologist Summer Camp began to take shape. The camp is grounded in providing opportunities for campers to engage in connection, kindness, and curiosity with each other and the natural world. Campers will explore what it's like to live the life of a Paleontologist by solving mysteries from the time of the dinosaurs, modeling a dinosaur dig site, using imagination and creativity to reimagine creatures of the past, examining fossils, tracking footprints, and building museum exhibits. Through scientific exploration, creativity, and discovery, this camp embarks on a journey that walks the line between imagination and real life!
By the formal definition, Paleontology might just focus on studying prehistoric life by examining fossil specimens; however, I hope that you will now see its tremendous power to ignite a sense of wonder and imagination. This summer, I encourage you to explore Eagle County’s many prehistoric sites and travel back in time, not only to the time of the dinosaurs, but to a time when your child-like sense of wonder captivated your imagination.
Written by Rylee Bundy. Rylee Bundy is a Walking Mountains Foley Graduate fellow beginning her second year in the graduate program. Rylee was born and raised in Colorado, and when she’s not teaching, she loves to fly fish, explore Eagle Valley, play soccer, listen to live music, and sit by the river.
