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February 2, 2006

Fossil-rich Wyoming land donated to Pitt

A Wyoming rancher with no previous ties to Pitt has given the University Honors College 4,700 acres of land in eastern Wyoming containing rich dinosaur fossil beds and likely other important fossil finds.

Philanthropist Allen Cook’s gift, valued at approximately $7 million, will make possible the preservation of what could be a national treasure rivaling the nearby famed fossil beds excavated a century ago through the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie.

The land will be used for research by Pitt students and faculty, as well as by Pitt research partners — scientists from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History and faculty and students from the University of Wyoming.

Pitt’s insight and experience in connecting land and learning was a key reason Cook looked to Pitt when making his gift.

“I’m thrilled to be handing over the stewardship of this land to the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College, because its leaders have an exciting vision for discovering all the land promises for education and research,” said Cook in a statement released by Pitt’s Office of Public Affairs. “Their understanding of its delicate ecosystem and their interest in collaborating with other institutions in the nation assured me that the ranch land I love would be used for the highest purposes.”

Honors College Dean G. Alec Stewart said there was some luck involved in piquing Cook’s interest in Pitt’s programs. Bill Mundy, a childhood friend of Stewart’s, had been hired to appraise Cook’s ranch and he persuaded Cook to consider Pitt’s expertise in educational field work.

“In a sense it was serendipity that I had put a bug in the ear of a land economist and ranch appraiser who mentioned our interest in field work to Mr. Cook, because there were a lot of people who wanted to get their hands on this land,” Stewart told the University Times. “On the other hand, it was a logical progression from that to Mr. Cook’s interest in our programming and his trusting of our stewardship of this land.”

Stewart credited Honors College program director Edward McCord with sealing the deal to get the Cook ranch gift.

McCord, who teaches the environmental component of the Yellowstone field program, told of a phone call from Mundy to Stewart in 2000. “Alec said he didn’t know if anything would come of it — that it may be pie in the sky — but that I could follow up that call by contacting Allen Cook,” McCord told the University Times. “From that moment on I made it my objective” to secure the land for the University, he said. McCord’s efforts included several trips to the Cook ranch, numerous phone calls and partnering with Carnegie Museum and University of Wyoming officials. “It took about six years, but it was worth it.”

Pitt’s Honors College has an ongoing connection to the state of Wyoming: Each summer since 1989, it has offered the Yellowstone field course, a one-of-a-kind program in and around Yellowstone National Park, in which students explore the geological, ecological and cultural dimensions of Yellowstone and its environs.

The Honors College will shepherd the curriculum to be developed for the ranch land, Stewart said. “I see this more as an expansion of our established Yellowstone field course, located at the northwestern corner of Wyoming, than a new program,” he said. “Allen Cook’s gift will generate a cascade of opportunities over the years for our students and faculty with this additional setting and new institutional collaborations. This clearly positions us to have an immediate impact through field programs centered in paleontology, but also extending beyond that to anthropology and environmental studies and even Western literature and history.”

Stewart, who visited the site last October, said it’s more than a dinosaur treasure trove. “Everybody loves dinosaurs, and they capture the attention of the public,” he said. “When I was walking around at the site, I saw a stone vertebra of a dinosaur, several in fact, but I walked a little farther away and there was a Native American teepee ring that essentially has been preserved for at least 100 years .”

According to press materials, Mary Dawson, curator emerita of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum, who also has visited the site, said it has “tremendous potential” for fossil discovery. The land contains the same geological formations and sits near the site of some of the most important paleontological discoveries in recent history.

What makes Cook’s donated land so promising for researchers is that it encompasses the Morrison, Sundance and Cloverly formations. It was on the Morrison Formation at nearby Sheep Creek in 1899 that Carnegie Museum researchers discovered the nearly complete skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii, affectionately referred to as Dippy, which remains the centerpiece of the museum’s exhibition.

In addition to containing fossils from the mid-Jurassic period, the land shows great promise for exploration of a continuum of historic natural treasures. The Sundance Formation has potential for producing Mesozoic marine animal fossils. And the Cloverly Formation represents the lesser-known Early Cretaceous Interval.

Dawson noted that it was in the Cloverly that an important dinosaur — “the nasty little Deinonychus” — was discovered relatively recently. “Who knows what other unknown creatures might be lurking in the Cloverly?” Dawson asked in the released statement.

Carnegie director Bill R. DeWalt, who also visited the site, said in the press statement, “I am personally very gratified to see this donation, because it will help to preserve an area of land that is scientifically invaluable for documenting the history of Earth and its inhabitants.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History looks forward to continuing its collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College in exploring the potential of this significant property.”

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg stated in the press release, “Mr. Cook has presented our University with one of the most extraordinary gifts of all — his trust that the University of Pittsburgh will be a faithful steward of the land he has cherished for so many years. We are deeply grateful for his generosity, which will benefit Pitt students and scholars, as well as our partners from the broader community, in perpetuity.”

Cook’s gift also shows confidence in the Honors College leadership team, Nordenberg said. “In particular, Dean Alec Stewart and program director Edward McCord have demonstrated a creative commitment to the use of this land that was appealing to Mr. Cook and that will add a special richness to the educational experiences available through Pitt,” the chancellor stated.

—Peter Hart


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