Hell Creek, Montana
America's Key to the Prehistoric Past
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- 10,99 €
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- 10,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
"Given its wide range, this book should attract readers of history and lovers of the American West in addition to dinosaur junkies. " - Publishers Weekly
Hell Creek, Montana, is one of the most windswept, hardscrabble locales in the American West-a quiet town of ranchers, farmers, and others who seek the beauty of the open spaces. It is also the unlikely setting of some of the most fascinating events in the history of the United States and North America. From the first-ever discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex to Lewis and Clark's landmark expedition; from the Freeman compound standoff to Sitting Bull and Little Big Horn, Hell Creek has been a central player in the events of the last two hundred years-and the last 200 million.
Now, with grace and quiet wit, renowned paleontologist and writer Lowell Dingus takes us on a tour of this desolate, beautiful, out-of-the-way place and illuminates its inhabitants, geology, paleontology, and surprising place in history. Nature lovers, dinosaur buffs, and people fascinated with the turbulent history--both ancient and modern--of the American West will find much to delight them in this journey to Hell Creek.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers may be confused by the title of this book by paleontologist Dingus (The Mistaken Extinction), which doesn't do justice to his story: an occasionally lyrical and meditative history of Montana's Badlands, a desolate region that he has clearly come to love during his paleontological expeditions. The rugged Badlands of east-central Montana stretch for more than 100 miles along the south bank of the Missouri River. The area hasn't always been a giant's playground of buttes and coulees and inhospitable ravines. Seventy million years ago T. rex chased its prey through a luxuriant floodplain that covered the area. The first skeletal T. rex remains were discovered here, and the most complete specimen before the $7 million Sue was found on a local ranch by an amateur bone hunter in the 1960s. Meriwether Clark became the first fossil hunter of the American West when he picked up a dinosaur bone a little farther upriver on the Corps of Discovery's journey to the Pacific. The residents of the Badlands town of Jordan have seen their share of excitement more recently: in 1996 right-wing extremists called the Freemen engaged the FBI in a standoff that attracted national media attention. Given its wide range, this book should attract readers of history and lovers of the American West in addition to dinosaur junkies. 15 b&w photos.
