August 25 , 2016

by DAVID DRURY

A half-century ago, on Aug. 23, 1966, Hugo F. Thomas had the most exciting day of his long, distinguished professional life.

Then a young associate professor of geology and geography at UConn, Thomas and colleague Lawrence Frankel got a call that afternoon to go to Rocky Hill and inspect fossils found at a state construction site.

The two geologists had anticipated quietly picking up a few usable specimens.

When they arrived at West Street, Thomas spotted a fellow geologist from Willimantic State College, now Eastern Connecticut State University, struggling to lift a large rock into the back of a station wagon.

A wide, horizontal cut had stripped away top layers of rock to reveal slabs of gray sandstone containing large, three-toed, raised footprints.

"When Larry and I got there we were breath-taken,'' recalled Thomas, one of the first scientists to observe what quickly became an international sensation: a staggering number of fossilized prints left by marauding dinosaurs from the Jurassic period, 200 million years ago.

"We were trying to stop the construction. They were very reluctant," Thomas said. "This was a one-of-a-kind find, not just locally, but worldwide, really."

The chance discovery by a sharp-eyed bulldozer operator, Edward A. McCarthy, working 12 feet below grade, eventually yielded 1,500 tracks. An additional 600 were uncovered nearby the following year.

In May 1968, the site was listed on the National Registry of Natural Landmarks. In a ceremony that October, Dinosaur State Park was opened to the public, becoming one of the jewels in the crown of the Connecticut state park system.

Now celebrating its golden anniversary, the park, with its familiar domed exhibit center, draws an average of 50,000 visitors a year from all age groups, benefiting from its central, easy-to access-location and an enduring public fascination with dinosaurs. Like other state parks, it has felt the sting of the current budget difficulties: hours, staffing and programming have been, or are being, reduced. And while its displays and exhibits have expanded and the grounds and trails have matured through the years, three-quarters of the tracks were reburied decades ago, limiting the park's appeal to scientific researchers, even as theories about why they were left continue to take shape.

Dinosaur State Park owes its existence to the heady days and weeks that followed discovery of the tracks.

"It was interesting to say the least,'' said McCarthy, now 78, who was working for a contractor hired to dig the foundation for a $1 million Highway Department materials testing laboratory.

He remembers being set to resume work when Jane Cheney, director of the Children's Museum of West Hartford, arrived on the site, examined the fossils, and "stood in front of the equipment and dared us to run over her'' before calling state officials.

"The political machinery got working in a hurry,'' he said.

A temporary fence was erected and 24-hour security posted to protect the dig site from frenzied spectators and fossil-hunters packing chisels, crowbars and hammers.

A group of scientists and state officials met Aug. 29 to determine a course of action. Grant Meyer of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History — acting under the direction of Joe Webb Peoples of the Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey and renowned Yale University paleontologist John H. Ostrom — was tasked with doing a careful excavation to determine the scope of the trackway. As its expanse became apparent, the scientists argued against breaking it up, but leaving it in place as an educational resource.

As Ostrom reported that Sept. 7: "If properly developed and maintained, this locale could be a spectacular and valuable outdoor instructional display available to the general public and tourist and to all the public and private schools in the central Connecticut area."

Faced with pressure from the scientific community and wild public enthusiasm, any lingering reluctance crumbled. On Sept. 13, 1966, Gov. John Dempsey announced that 7.7 acres surrounding the tracks would become a state park, and the testing lab would be relocated farther east on West Street. "I don't care what they find down there, they're going to build on top of it," Dempsey supposedly remarked.

During the early years, preserving and protecting the exposed tracks from the ravages of wind, water and winter while making them accessible to public viewing proved vexing.

To prepare for that first winter, Thomas and his students worked alongside those from Yale and Wesleyan to clean the tracks and brush on a specially developed sealant — Dinoseal — before covering the trackway with layers of vinyl sheeting, electric heating cables, sand, mulch and topped by more plastic secured by tires. "It was the best display of used tires I've ever seen,'' he said.

Architectural plans called for building a permanent structure over the entire trackway, but the $6 million projected cost proved a deal-breaker. Instead, the state legislature approved $250,000 for park development. Part of that sum funded the first "temporary" exhibit center: an inflatable, plastic-coated, nylon "bubble building" that covered the 600 tracks uncovered in 1967.

The bubble was ready by the park's official opening, and for next few years — the main trackway was uncovered and the bubble inflated each season — visitors came from all over the world and attendance exceeded 100,000 annually.

Richard Kreuger, who was hired as park geologist in July 1970 and spent 33 years there, developing the exhibits, hiking trails, and ancient species-inspired arboretum, recalled his first visit one snow-covered day that January.

"It was pretty much a construction zone," he said. "The bubble building was on the ground when I first arrived, and we had to crawl under the bubble to get down to the tracks.

"It was a strange building to work in. Two big fans kept it upright and blew dirt onto the trackway, which had to be washed down every two weeks."

The "temporary" bubble remained in place until collapsing for good in 1975. For three years, the grounds were closed to the public while a permanent exhibit center was designed and built, and continued improvements were made to outdoor exhibits and trails. The original trackway, which had begun to deteriorate alarmingly, was resealed with a more durable material and buried beneath 4 feet of sand and turf.

Public advocacy for the park remained strong throughout. The Friends of Dinosaur Park and Arboretum Inc. was established in 1976 and has provided critical volunteer and material support. Through its history, the group has donated $500,000 to fund exhibits and furnishings and sponsor programming and other activities.

"The Friends' commitment has always been to promote the educational commitment of the park," said Kathy Kennedy, a retired Rocky Hill High School science teacher, who is the group's president. "We really love the place."

Most of the exhibited tracks, classified by science as Eubrontes impressions, were believed left by large bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs, similar or related to the Dilophosaurus featured prominently in the center's diorama mural.

To understand why the tracks were formed, and in such abundance, geologist Nicholas G. McDonald, 66, said the answer may lie with the early Jurassic environment. The climate was monsoonal, and central Connecticut was covered with lakes, the water levels rising or falling dramatically with the season, not unlike parts of Africa or the Amazon basin today. During the dry season, carnivores probably rushed in to feed upon trapped fish. They left footprints in the lake beds that, when the waters rose again, were preserved by sediment.

A retired science teacher, veteran fossil collector and author of the Friends-published book about Dinosaur State Park, "Window into the Jurassic World," McDonald said the park is an "unparalleled" state resource. Like other advocates, he supports funding for a structure that would allow the buried tracks to once again be opened for public viewing. Sample pits opened in 2011 showed them to be in excellent condition.

"The park serves as a unique focal point for geological and paleontological studies. The tracks are spectacular. There is nothing comparable east of the Mississippi … certainly nothing in the middle of a population center," he said.

Dinosaur State Park is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Aug. 20 and 21 with free admission and special events from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.