Posted on 07/26/2016 1:59:02 PM PDT by SandRat
ST. DAVID — There’s no telling how many times Milton Curtis stepped over those odd-looking rocks as he went about the day-to-day business of ranching.
Back in 1921, life on Curtis Ranch in St. David was filled with cattle and horses and providing for a young family.
Things like dinosaurs really weren’t the topic of discussion, nor did they get much attention.
But in 1921, that changed.
“What my father thought were rocks were actually the tips of tusks from a giant mastodon dinosaur,” chuckled 98-year-old Clea Brown, her eyes sparkling as she talked about a discovery that launched the modest family ranch where she was born and raised into a destination spot for a well-known Smithsonian Institute paleontologist.
“Surveyors were going through here, making maps of the area in the early 1920s. One of them saw the tusks sticking out of the ground and thought they could be dinosaur bones.” The surveyor informed scientists of the discovery and life on Curtis Ranch suddenly got a lot more exciting for the next couple of years.
Dr. James William Gidley, a vertebrate paleontologist with the National Museum of Natural History, visited the Curtis Ranch at different times from 1921 through 1923. The tusk tips that had been poking out of an old dried-up lakebed were attached to a massive 14-foot mastodon.
“At the time, it was the largest mastodon east of the Mississippi,” Brown said. “It was a very exciting discovery for Dr. Gidley. ”
As the excavation continued, a rare glyptodont was uncovered, as well as two smaller mastodons, to name the more impressive prehistoric remains removed from the site. Two of the Curtis Ranch mastodons and the glyptodont became part of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History display for several decades. The third was sent to another museum in New York.
“They came out and started digging when I was about three and they were done with the excavation when I was about five,” Brown recalled. Even though she was quite young, Brown says the excavation represents a phase of her life she has always cherished and remembered.
Passionate about keeping that unique family experience alive for future generations, she has maintained detailed notes and photos of the dig through the years and shares stories of the excavation with her children and grandchildren.
“I really enjoy hearing my grandmother’s stories,” said Faith Brown. “I can’t believe all the details she remembers; she has a wonderful memory and is an amazing story teller.”
As a former substitute schoolteacher for the St. David, Pomerene and Benson school districts for more than 30 years, Brown also shared the dinosaur discovery with other children throughout the San Pedro Valley.
“Everyone in this area knows me,” she smiled. “I still go into schools and talk about the dinosaurs that were found here.”
The prospect of huge dinosaurs roaming the family ranch millions of years ago fascinated Brown’s father, who transitioned from rancher to overnight paleontologist during the excavation. Gidley taught his young student how to treat the bones with a special solution to preserve them after the fossilized remains were exposed to air. He would return to the east coast for months at a time while Milton Curtis continued to work the excavation site.
Curtis compiled like bones together in neat groupings and bound them with twine before loading them into a horse-drawn wagon, the mode of transportation from the dig site to a garage where they were stored on the ranch. When it was time to transport them to New York by rail, it was Curtis who hauled the bones to the train in an old ranch work truck.
“In 1924 the bones were transported to Washington D.C.” recalled Brown. While three of the specimens excavated from the Curtis Ranch became part of the Smithsonian collection for decades, it’s unclear whether any of the dinosaurs are still on display today.
“If they aren’t going to display them, I would like to find out where they are and bring them back to the San Pedro Valley where they were discovered,” Brown said. “I think the people in this area would really enjoy seeing them.”
About 20 years ago, Brown visited the Smithsonian Institute where she saw the San Pedro Valley glyptodont on display. Prior to her arrival, someone from St. David had contacted the museum and told a staff member about the Curtis Ranch dinosaurs and that a lady named Clea Brown would be visiting the museum. One of the curators met Brown when she arrived at the Museum of Natural History and gave her a personal tour.
“That was an amazing experience,” she said. “While I stood there looking at the glyptodont, I told him I wanted to touch it.” Brown couldn’t go into the display to touch the skeleton, but was led into a private storage area where the curator pressed a glyptodont shell into her hand. “I really didn’t expect all that,” smiled Brown, who doesn’t care much about being in the spotlight.
Shifting her attention back to the dig, she holds out another old photo. This one is of Gidley, wearing dress clothes and a tie, kneeling down at the excavation site next to Milton Curtis.
“Daddy loved it when Dr. Gidley came out to the ranch to work at the dig site,” Brown recalled, her face breaking into a gentle smile. “Dr. Gidley always wore a tie, even when he was working. Daddy would help him at the site and then he would tell us all kinds of stories about what they found out there.”
On his last visit to Curtis Ranch, Gidley presented Clea and her older sister Elnor with beaded necklaces.
“Mine were red and my sister’s were blue,” she said. “I still remember how pretty those were. That was really exciting for us, another memory I’ll always treasure.”
Brown’s stories of the dinosaur excavation on her family’s ranch have been recorded and archived several times through the years. Tucked in her collection is an old Tombstone Epitaph article written in August 1963 that chronicles Gidley’s visit and the dinosaurs found there.
“Her photos and notes are family treasurers,” said Faith. “I’m very lucky to have such an amazing grandmother who has worked hard to keep these stories alive for us.”
During the Pioneer Days celebration in St. David on July 22 and 23, Brown was one of two presenters featured on the first day of the event, where those early family photos were showcased and she shared her stories about the dinosaurs of Curtis Ranch.
“What my father thought were rocks were actually the tips of tusks from a giant mastodon dinosaur.”
— 98-year-old Clea Brown
PING
So there are dinosaurs in St. David Clea Brown?
But how do they know the dinosaurs are telling stories aboutg dinosaur digs? Does someone speak dinosaur? Or can they interpret the itty bitty hand languange?
Mastodons and glyptodonts were NOT dinosaurs.
Mastadons aren't dinosaurs.
We may be too hard on the reporter and need to be kind to this 98yo lady when griping about dinosaurs and Mastodons. A good and fun story otherwise but shows the loss of the backroom checkers, copy and proof editors, to avoid these factual errors.
Don’t confuse her with facts; she’s on a roll...
Bury him on the ranch and when he is dug up by the insect overlords of the future they can display his bones : )
This is all down there near Fort Hoochie Coochie and Southeast Arizona
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