In Blanding

Right in town is the Edge of the Cedars State Park. The museum was amazing with artifacts, especially the pottery.We heard from a ranger that this pot was made using thin ropes of clay. Very thin. I thought it was amazing.

The baskets were similarly detailed construction.              

The red macaw feathers in this sash shows trade with Mexico.

Love these arrowhead points on a cord as an “ammo string”.

Outside was some ruins occupied during the 800-900’s including one where you can climb down the ladder into the lower room.

The Dinosaur Museum founded by Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas is in town. It is fascinating both as a museum and after hearing about the controversy of this museum and its founders. Around 1999, the Czerkas bought a fossil originally from China at an auction for $80,000. They studied it and wrote a paper about a new dinosaur / bird that they called Archaeoraptor as a missing link between birds and dinosaurs. The problem was that the fossil they bought was a mixture of three different remains and Czerkas didn’t want to hear that it was faked despite experts questioning the fossil. The paper was rejected by some major journals but National Geographic printed it. The whole thing became quite a scandal when it was found to be a fake.

The museum emphasizes the mixture of dinosaurs and birds that aren't exactly current science. I also read online that some of the dinosaur skeletons in this museum are assembled incorrectly / differently than scholars believe is correct.

The neat part of the museum was about dinosaur movies. Stephen Czerkas was involved in some of the earlier stop-motion movies with monsters. The exhibits on this topic were excellent like this one showing how early movies were done with foreground and backgrounds.

This one is the original model for the Brontosaurus used in King Kong.