3-5 Exploring Ancient Life and Its Connection to Energy
Background Info/ Historical Story:
“Far, far, far away, where it melted into naught but a misty veil, stretched the shimmering expanse of water. It lay, on this particular day, not mirror like in its utter quietness, but as a great burnished shield, covered with the tiniest ripples. In all directions save one, it stretched unbroken. Over it leaned the illimitable blue of the sky, patterned lightly with filmy swatches of white clouds while the rays of the sun beat steadily down upon· the polished surface of the water. But there is life in the scene. The warm shallow sea is simply teeming with it. Millions upon millions of microscopic organisms, plant or animal. Who knows? Probably both. They fall to the sea bottom in never ending succession, like tiny snow flakes gently settling through the quiet water. Only the eye of Nature perceives the activity. Suddenly a gale arises. There have been many gales and there will be more. Now the organisms sink thick and fast. Any disturbance sends them quickly to the bottom where they lie and wait and wait and wait for a long time.
"Hush, hush little organisms, don't you sigh.
You shall all be oil and gas, bye and bye.
In the far distant future, you'll come to light again
For you'll supply the needs and whims
Of countless hordes of men."
- Lorene E. Kirschten, History of Fallon County-1940- Fallon County Library
“One winter in particular comes to my mind, altho there were many tough winters and much snow. This one that stands out, was a long, severe, cold one. I and my kid brother were still in country school and due to the deep snow they postponed school to be made up in the spring . We ran out of coal so it was up to dad and me to go get some coal. There was a community mine where several families worked in the fall to uncover enough coal for the winter, but it was too far to go to, so we went to a surface coal mine which was about four miles from us. The snow was deep and hard crusted. The horses floundered in it and they were on top, the one leg stayed on top and the others would fall through. It was 30 below zero and bitter cold. We were dressed as warm as possible, the horses were of the best, and very willing. Dad took good care of his horses. We had the bob sled today for the trip after coal, and a wash tub to load it with. When we got to the coal area Dad started a brush fire to heat the coffee in the gallon pail and we had coffee and cold sandwiches which went great. Then came the process of uncovering the coal. I did what I could to help. Then I helped Dad to lift the tubs of coal onto the sled, meanwhile the horses were munching oats. After we got as much as we could haul and not over tire the horses we headed for home. No words can say how bitter cold it was as it was getting on to dusk time of the day. Dad got off and walked a lot but I didn't and I shall never forget how impressed he was at the way I could stand the cold. Home sure looked good that evening, and that coal sure looked good in the once empty bin.” - O’Fallon Flashbacks, Mervyl I. Brott and Dod A. Brott
Item From Collections:
- Fallon County Times Thu, Dec 24, 1953.png
- Fossils Reveal History, Culbertson, MT, Fri Dec 9, 1921.jpg