Celebrate 75 Years At Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument - photo by Dave Webb

The area now known as Dinosaur National Monument first drew national attention in 909, when Earl Douglass started collecting fossils there for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

It was proclaimed a national monument in 915 President Woodrow Wilson, protecting some 80 acres. In 1938, the monument boundaries were expanded to include over 200,000 acres in Utah and Colorado. The monument encompassing some of the most spectacular canyons of the Green and Yampa rivers.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the expansion. The Park Service is throwing a party and you are invited. The Monument provided the information below.

A celebration of the 75th anniversary of the expansion of the monument will kick off with cake this Sunday, July 14 at both the Quarry Visitor Center near Jensen, UT and the Canyon Visitor Center near Dinosaur, CO. Cake will be served from 11:00 am until it is gone. Throughout the year, a variety of special events and ranger programs will highlight Dinosaur National Monument’s broader natural and cultural resources and wilderness values. Topics will include night skies, homestead history, geology, petroglyphs and the spectacular river canyons of the Green and Yampa Rivers. If you can’t make it in person, we invite you to enjoy a virtual visit through photos and stories shared at facebook.com/DinosaurNationalMonument.

Monument staff and volunteers are also currently working on a new web video titled Dinosaur: Beyond the Bones, which we hope to debut in time for the 75th anniversary. Future events will be posted on Facebook and www.nps.gov/dino over the next several months, so check back often.