- It's 1933 as Walter Granger returns to
Mongolia with Indiana Jones and reporter Joan Starbuck
to find a living dinosaur!
We came
across this fascinating
web site some time
ago: "Walter Granger was an American paleontologist
who participated in the discovery of the first
fossilized dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert. In 1933,
he returned to Mongolia with archaeologist Indiana
Jones and reporter Joan Starbuck, pursuing evidence of
a living dinosaur."
-
- Lend a
hand...help
them find a living dinosaur!
-
-
Fact Sheet #1
for Kids (and Adults):
-
- 1.
Walter Granger's first expedition to the American West
was in 1894. He accompanied Jacob Wortman's fossil
hunting party which included Olaf Peterson and Albert
Thomson.
-
- 2. In
1896, Granger replaced Peterson and, with Wortman and
others, visited famed amateur archaeologist Richard
Wetherill at the newly discovered, now famous Anazasi
site at Chaco Canyon (New Mexico). From there the
fossil hunters headed deep into the San Juan
Basin.
-
- 3.
The famous dinosaur locality now known as Bone Cabin
Quarry near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, was discovered by
Walter Granger in late August of 1897. Excavation of
the site began in 1898. Some sources incorrectly
associate Barnum Brown and/or others with this
discovery. Not so. Barnum Brown and/or others had
nothing to do with Bone Cabin Quarry's discovery or
its subsequent excavation. The key players in the
excavation of Bone Cabin Quarry following Granger's
discovery of it were Granger, Jacob Wortman, Albert
Thomson, Harold Menke and Peter Kaisen. Wortman was
gone by 1899, leaving Granger in charge.
-
- 4.
Walter Granger was the first US paleontologist to
collect on a non-American continent. It was in the
Fayum of Egypt in 1907. George Olsen assisted him, as
did Egyptian workers.
-
- 5.
Walter Granger was the first paleontologist to collect
in the Yangtze River basin. He was assisted by
Buckshot (Kan Chuen Pao), Chow (Chao Hui Lu), Liu (Liu
Ta Ling) and others.
-
- 6.
Walter Granger was the first paleontologist to collect
in Inner and Outer Mongolia. In 1922, the Mongolia
expedition party was a small reconnaissance party
limited to a paleontologist, two geologists, a
zoologist and a cinemaphotographer. It was much the
same in 1923, except that three assistants in
paleontology were added and the cinemaphotographer was
dropped. It was not until the 1925 party that other
scientific disciplines were added, such as
archaeology, topography, and paleobotany. The
cinemaphotographer was brought back, as well.
-
- George Olsen
assisted Granger on two Mongolia expeditions (1923 and
1925) and during winters in the laboratory in Peking
(1923-25), as did Chinese and Mongolian workers.
Buckshot, Chow, and Liu served throughout. Peter
Kaisen assisted in Mongolia for one summer (1923) and
Albert Thomson served there for two (1928 and
1930).
-
- 7.
The first find of whole dinosaur eggs was by George
Olsen at Flaming Cliffs in Outer Mongolia on July 10,
1923. This was not the first discovery of dinosaur
eggs. In 1869, the French claimed to find a dinosaur
eggshell fragment in the Pyrenees. However, this claim
remained in doubt. The first scientifically accepted
find of a dinosaur egg was an eggshell fragment found
by Walter Granger on September 2, 1922, at Flaming
Cliffs, the same place Olsen made his discovery of
whole dinosaur eggs and their nest a year later. Some
sources mistakenly cite the date for Olsen's find as
July 13, 1923. Not so. It was made on July 10,
1923.
-
- Olsen
promptly notified Granger of his find. Roy Chapman
Andrews, however, did not become aware of it for
nearly another two weeks. (Anyone know why? Hint:
location, location, location--what was Andrews doing
when Olsen found the eggs?)
-
- 8.
The scientific fieldwork of the Central Asiatic
Expeditions (CAE) was coordinated by Walter Granger
who was the CAE's chief paleontologist and
second-in-command.
-
- 9.
Roy Andrews,
by his own admission in his own publications, was not
a paleontologist or a competent fossil
collector.
-
- 10.
Like a number of US civilians living in key areas
abroad during the time, Roy Andrews served the US
Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) as a paid
civilian informant for a few months during 1918-1919.
He operated under cover of his curatorship with the
American Museum of Natural History. He even had a code
name. (Anyone know what it was?) He was not, however,
a trained spy. Nor was he a member of the US military.
And he did not actually serve for a WWI purpose--his
use was for post-WWI purposes. His term of service,
however was briefer than the year he signed up for. He
inked the deal in Washington, DC, in June of 1918,
returned to Peking with his wife Yvette and son George
a few weeks later and, after settling in, began
snooping around in China and Mongolia. In April, 1919,
however, the ONI abruptly terminated his service.
(Anyone know why? Hint: peeping eyes--could Yvette
have had anything to do with it?)
-
- By the way,
three of Andrews' sponsors for the ONI job were heads
of major American scientific institutions. (Anyone
know who and which?)
-
- And, while
Walter Granger interacted with various members of the
British and American navy Yangtze River gunboat
patrols in China during the early 1920s and did
exchange information with them, there is no record
that he operated as a paid civilian informant.
-
- 11.
Walter Granger spent significantly more time in the
field during the Central Asiatic Expeditions than did
any other member. His Chinese assistants Chow and
Buckshot were the next in accumulated field time. They
served with Granger in China and Mongolia. From 1921
to 1930, Granger made one four-day expedition to
Zhoukoudian, four winter-long expeditions to the
Yangtze basin (Sichuan and Yunnan), and five
summer-long expeditions to the Gobi basin (Inner and
Outer Mongolia, as they were then known). He also
returned to the States three times.
-
- Only one
other CAE westerner served both on China (1925-26 and
1926-27) and Mongolia (1925) expeditions. He was CAE
archaeologist Nels C. Nelson.
-
- Anna Granger,
Walter's wife, and Ethelyn Nelson, Nels' wife, were
the only women to serve on the CAE's China
expeditions. Anna attended three (1922-23, 1925-26,
1926-27) and Ethelyn attended two (1925-26, 1926-27).
They were considered adjunct members of the CAE. These
were the most dangerous expeditions by the CAE
anywhere.
-
- Yvette
Andrews, Roy's wife, briefly accompanied the 1922 CAE
Mongolia party from Kalgan to Urga and then returned
to Peking. She never went into the field again.
-
- 12.
Walter Granger's favorite baseball team was the
Brooklyn Dodgers. His favorite state was Vermont. His
next favorite state was Wyoming. And although George
Olsen and Albert Thomson were among his very best
friends and field companions, he thought Nels Nelson
was the best camp mate he had ever known.
-
-
- March, 2008 Update - Open
Letter
- Inquiry
on Repository
|
- NEW FEATURE - Fact Sheet #2 for Kids
(and Adults):
- 1.
The first known Mongolia-Gobi transit by motorcar
was:
- a. Roy
Chapman Andrews et al. in 1918-1919
- b. Roy
Chapman Andrews et al. in 1922
- c. Walter
Granger et al. in 1921
- d. Prince
Scipione Borghese et al. in 1907
- e. Vladimir
Obruchev in 1892-1894
-
- Answer: d.
Italian Prince Scipione Luigi Marcantanio Francesco
Rodolfo Borghese and his driver/mechanic Ettore
Guizzardi drove an Itala 35/45 across the
Gobi-Mongolia along the ancient camel caravan route
from Kalgan at the Great Wall northwest to Urga near
the Russian border and into Siberia and beyond during
the famed 1907
motorcar race from Peking to Paris.
The Italian journalist Luigi
Barzini accompanied
them stuffed in a makeshift back seat wedged between
two extra gas tanks mounted over the rear fenders.
Barzini recorded the event and reported on it whenever
possible to a rapt world audience via the telegraph
stations that dotted the route along the way. Yes,
there was a telegraph line from China to Russia strung
across the Gobi-Mongolia in 1907. They served as
Borghese's guideposts over the Mongolian plains and
Gobi desert.
-
- Four other
cars competed in the 1907 Peking to Paris race,
although Borghese led all the way. Since all but one
of them made it to Urga, there really are four
recorded motorcar crossings of the Gobi-Mongolia in
1907. Many such crossings would follow thereafter, of
course, since the race's purpose was to prove that
feasibility. By the time of the Roy Chapman Andrews
and the Central Asiatic Expeditions in 1922, auto
traffic between Kalgan and Urga was
commonplace.
-
- So, how, in
1907, did Borghese and his fellow competitors manage
to make it all the way across a rather primitive
Gobi-Mongolia in open, two-seater cars with limited
carrying capacity? There were no fuel stations or auto
supply and repair shops or rest stations. The cars
couldn't possibly carry all the fuel, oil, water,
supplies and spares needed to negotiate the 800 miles
from Kalgan to Urga. In fact, these were cached in
advance: all requisite items and spares were
transported up the route by camel caravan and dropped
off at predetermined locations along the way. Yes,
that was in 1907, a full fifteen years ahead of the
Central Asiatic Expeditions which adopted the same
method!
-
- 2.
Which of the following was a member of the
Freemasons?
- a. Theodore
Roosevelt
- b. Lowell
Thomas
- c. James B.
Shackelford (CAE cinema photographer)
- d. Walter
Granger
- e. Al
Jolson
-
- Answer: all
of the above.
-
- 3.
Who wrote the following and when?
- "In Mongolia,
and in the desert of Gobi, we were to find ourselves
able to get up speed only in crossing virgin land.
There are plains over which the best road for the
automobile is where no road is marked! A few years ago
we could not have risked ourselves without a guide
over the endless Mongolian prairies and over the
desert. Now there is an invaluable guide along the
camel road: it is the telegraph. You blindly follow
the lines of the telegraph poles for about eight
hundred miles, and you reach Urga. In those distant
regions, over the endless solitude of Central Asia,
the nearness of the telegraph, meant for us a nearness
to our own world, and this was a further reason for
the choice we made."
-
- a. Roy
Chapman Andrews, 1922
- b. Walter
Granger, 1922
- c. Luigi
Barzini, 1908
- d. Vladimir
Obruchev, 1895
- e. Yvette
Borup Andrews, 1919
-
- Answer: c.
Luigi Barzini in Peking to
Paris (1908) at p.
62.
-
- 4.
Who wrote the following and when?
- "The geology
of this part of the world is occupying more and more
commercial attention and I believe the work which
Professors Berkey and Morris can do will not only be
of great value scientifically but also make our
Expedition of direct economic importance."
-
- a. U.S.
President Warren G. Harding, 1922
- b. Walter
Granger, 1922
- c. Henry
Fairfield Osborn, 1922
- d. Roy
Chapman Andrews, 1922
- e. Yvette
Borup Andrews, 1922
-
- Answer: d.
Roy Chapman Andrews in a letter written in 1922 to
Henry Fairfield Osborn.
-
- 5. To
facilitate their exit from a warlord battle at
Wanhsien (Wanxian) on the Upper Yangtze in March,
1923, Anna Granger departed the city aboard the
American gunboat USS Palos
(II) while Walter
departed aboard a rented junk which also carried his
men as well as expedition equipment and fossils. The
junk sailed under the protective guard of the
Palos
(II).
-
- 6.
The 'Central Asiatic Expeditions' began as the 'Third
Asiatic Expedition' since it followed Andrews' First
and Second Zoological Asiatic Expeditions. It was
renamed 'Central Asiatic Expeditions' by American
Museum of Natural History president Henry Fairfield
Osborn in 1926 "because," Granger wrote his father,
"the public never seemed to understand that this was
all the Third Asiatic Expedition regardless of how
many years we took to do it. Personally I much
preferred to keep the old name regardless and it will
still be used on scientific labels, etc."
-
- ***
- I'm always
happy to assist, chat and/or drop hints. You may
contact me at: granger.nh.ultranet@rcn.com
- --Vin
Morgan
-
-
- "Dinosaurs
& Gunboats: Walter Granger and the Central Asiatic
Expeditions"
-
- I recently
shared a sample chapter from the above book (work in
progress) with three colleagues. Their
responses:
-
- "I cannot
tell you how excited I am! Yours is going to be such a
major contribution to our field of studies."
- "...the
chapter is breathtaking... It reads like an adventure
story."
- "There is a
good mix of expedition finds, travails, and local
color. I like the way you use a few extracts from
Granger's diary... I continually had the impression
that I was reading a documentary movie narrative. It
brought to mind the surviving Shackelford film at the
American Museum, and I wonder if there is any prospect
of turning your account, through Granger's eyes, into
a documentary. Since so much of the movie film was
lost, the surviving remnants would have to be
supplemented with still photos and other material, but
wouldn't it make a wonderful product?"
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