Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center

Hi Everyone,

The dog days of summer are here. School has started around the country even earlier than ever. I think we should all form a protest group to bring back the school schedule that had the school year ending before Memorial Day and starting after Labor Day. Back then kid’s had a real summer vacation. I hope your kids have a great school year and remind their teachers to bring the class to RMDRC for a fun and educational field trip.

And speaking of dog days, we are welcoming a new canine member to our family. Joining our 3 Maltese dogs, Elvis, Buddy and Holly is Crickets. Crickets is a 2.2 pound Yorkie who is taking a position as mascot in our office. Come by the office when you visit and say hello to our little pup.

Our 5^th annual Critterfest was a terrific success! We had our biggest event so far with 23 organizations on hand on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks go out to all the great animal rescue and support groups that were here to share their information with our visitors. We had several new groups this year including the big cat rescue from “Serenity Springs”. The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation was on hand with 3 wolf cubs.

Of course, one of the returning favorites was the Flash and Thelma Hedgehog Rescue. The lectures were entertaining and educational and enjoyed by all who attended them.

September in Woodland Park is shaping up with a lot of end of summer events. The Woodland Retail Alliance (WRA) is hosting an Indian Arts Market and Powwow on the 5^th from 9-6 in Memorial Park. Starting with a pancake breakfast at the Senior Center, it’s a full day of activities including wagon rides, tipi displays, drumming, dancing, silver and bead workers and a live Pendleton blanket auction and more. At RMDRC, we will have the famous Seven Falls Dancers performing at 1 and 3pm on the plaza in front of the museum. At 2 pm, Donna Hatton, renowned cowboy poet will be performing inside in the Marine Room. From 11-3 Native American, Carrie Howell will be preparing and selling Indian fry bread out front on the plaza. This could become an annual event for Woodland Park so come out for a fun day and support the effort to continue to bring this Native American festival to Woodland Park.

The annual Cruise Above the Clouds Car Show will be held Sept. 12^th in Woodland Park and Sept.13^th in Cripple Creek. Come spend a day in the mountains enjoying the beauty of about 300 classic and custom vehicles. For details on this event visit www.cruiseabovetheclouds.com .

September 18-20 is the Denver Gem and Mineral Show held at the Merchandise Mart in Denver. This is a huge annual event featuring world class minerals and gems on display and for sale. RMDRC will have activities set up in the children’s area along with Dinosaur Ridge and the Morrison Museum. The Denver Fossil Show will be held in conjunction with the DGMS in the pavilion at the Mart. If you love minerals and fossils this is your opportunity to see and purchase some of the best specimens available.

Ever want to go out on a real fossil dig?

Here your chance. Enter our new photo contest, Planet Earth FotoFest. Deadline is September 30^th. Categories for the contest are “wildlife” and “scenic”. You may have 3 entries per category per person. The 1^st prize in the professional division is a trip to a real fossil digsite with our founder Mike Triebold. See our website www.rmdrc.com for more prizes and an entry form.

The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center is teaming up with Paleontologist Steven Veatch on Oct 10th to bring a full day educational seminar to our visitors. This seminar is for everyone interested in dinosaurs and the Mesozoic world, and is designed to arouse your imagination and provide a day of adventure and meaningful investigations into the world of dinosaurs. We will explore the life and times of dinosaurs -their kinds, ecology, evolution, life habits, and ultimate extinction. Join author, adventurer, and paleontologist Steven Veatch and explore lost worlds where dinosaurs once ruled supreme. (Click HERE for more details)

Bring the family up to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center soon and be sure to say hello to Cricket.

See you soon!

From the Education Desk

Summer is winding down and beginning on Sept. 23, autumn is upon us. This is my favorite season of the year with the fall colors showing so many wondrous varieties.

After reading my previous columns you realize I love to look up special events and dates that happened in a particular month. Here are some I found for September. Sept 3, 1900 the Wizard of Oz was published, Sept 7, 1936 is Buddy Holly’s birthday, Sept 13 is Grandparent’s Day and Mickey Mouse first appeared on Sept 19, 1928.

Labor Day occurs on September 7 this year and is a creation of the labor movement which is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It is a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well being of our country. This holiday celebrates the value and dignity of work, and its role in the American way of life.

The average American in the late 1800’s worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in order to make a basic living. Children also worked, as they provided cheap labor to employers. Laws against child labor were not strongly enforced at this time.

American unions became more prominent and voiced their demands for better conditions and wages. On Tuesday September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade. Participants took an unpaid day off to honor the workers of America, as well as vocalize issues they had with their employers.

On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of their union representatives. On June 26 the American Railroad Union called a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied and railroad traffic out of Chicago came to a halt. On July 4, President Grover Cleveland sent troops to Chicago. The strike brought worker’s rights to the public eye, and in July 1894 Congress declared that the first Monday in September would be known as Labor Day. In 1909, the Sunday before Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The founder of Labor Day remains unclear. Some people give credit to Peter McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor and some say it was Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union who should get the credit for proposing the holiday.

This nation pays tribute on Labor Day to the strength, freedom and leadership of the American worker. It also represents and celebrates the last long summer weekend before Autumn…………

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower ~ Albert Camus

Regards,
Geri LeBold
Education Director
geri@rmdrc.com

The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center is proud to present another presence on the web with our page on Facebook. Next time you are on Facebook do a search for Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center to locate us. So far we have photo albums for our dinosaur hall, our marine room, the lab and the gift shop and we are always putting new information out as things happen quite quickly around here. This is also a good source to see about recent events that we have had, or that we will have in the future. You can also check for contests that we have through out the year like our FotoFest 2009 contest that that ends September 30^th. There is a lot of information about the museum and a lot of great pictures. Be sure to become a fan of the museum and if you would like, leave a comment on our wall and let us know what you think. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Alan Patton
Events Coordinator

Please come by and visit us, take a tour and see what we have to offer your class.

Book your next field trip with us and enjoy a 1 hour guided tour of over 30 exciting dinosaur exhibits, discover how fossils are formed and preserved and learn where they are found, identify the characteristics of a dinosaur and watch our paleo-techs prepare our newest specimens.

News from the Lab

As many of you know, there's a lot more going on in the lab than I can fit in a monthly update. With that in mind, check out the Paleo Lab News with updates at least once weekly. Stop on by for stories & photographs!