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Carter County - Exploring Ancient Life and Its Connection to the Energy Industry

Background Info / Historical Story

“[Plant fossils] have importance in recording the history of the earth; they help fill in the ecological and the paleoclimate pictures. Hell Creek deposits preserve a few leaf prints and fossil sequoia cones, and the Fort Union sandstones have numerous prints of Paleocene plants. Petrified wood occurs in several localities in southeastern Montana. The mineral replacement of the wood is frequently quartz-like, a hard and sometimes colorful mineral. The fossil wood, often the stumps of trees, is most often found on the surface of the ground, the entombing sediments responsible for its preservation having long since been eroded away, making it difficult to determine its age.”- Shifting Scenes Volume 2, Marshall E. Lambert, 1976

“During the homestead days many small coal mines were operated when neighbors would get together and uncover beds of coal using horses and scrapers to remove a few feet of dirt which lay above veins of coal which varied in depth from a few feet to about twenty feet. The quality of the coal was not high; it contained lots of ashes but burned well and was a boon for the settlers who could obtain it without having to buy their fuel.”- Shifting Scenes Volume 1, H.B. Albert, 1910s

Collections Spotlight

CCM Plant Fossils

CCM Plant Fossil 3-D

Dennstaedtia americana

Photos, Maps, etc

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