Regarding the recent Tribune story, “Granary District dinosaur statue could stomp its way to new home.”
A few years ago my wife and I were returning home from Salt Lake City and stopped at the beautiful BLM visitor center in Big Water.
I noticed a BLM employee, younger than my vintage, alone at the front desk. I walked over to the desk and asked him, “So, what are you famous for?” — expecting something like, “I retired from Zions Bank after thirty years and enjoy working here part-time.”
That’s not quite how it went. He replied, “Well, I discovered a new species of dinosaur. Would you like to see it?”
Yes, indeed, we wanted to see it.
Paleontologist Scott Richardson then led us across the building to a life-size replica of Kosmo’s head and spent about thirty minutes with just the two of us. He described how in the summer of 2006 he discovered the bizarre-looking chasmosaur Kosmoceratops richardsoni (“Richardson’s ornamented horn-face” according to author Christa Sadler in “Where Dinosaurs Roamed: Lost Worlds of Utah’s Grand Staircase.”)
What an experience. Only in Utah!
Sadly, the BLM Visitor Center in Big Water is now closed.
John and Gail Westerlund, Flagstaff, Arizona
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