Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus adopts stegosaurus
From http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/canoncity-sports/ci_26720021/pueblo-community-college-fremont-campus-adopts-stegosaurus
There’s a new big “man” on campus at Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus.
A really big one.
On Monday, PCC officially adopted the stegosaurus from the Department of Corrections.
For about 20 years, the dinosaur had been featured at a visitors’ center near K-Bob’s Steakhouse in Cañon City.
The adoption ceremony featured local geologists and some of the members who helped construct the dinosaur. The ceremony was the first of three parts that PCC will go through to help make the dinosaur feel more at home.
“The whole point is to get everybody energized and to understand our legacy here for geology and paleontology, which is huge, here in Cañon City,” said Cindy Smith, who belongs to local groups Cañon City Geology Club and Fremont County Stones and Bones. “This is a huge focal point for that.”
This stegosaurus now calls Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus home. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)
Frank Miller was the deputy warden of Fremont Correctional Facility at the time the stegosaurus was built in 1994 or 1995.
“It’s going to be really neat having it here,” Miller said.
The building of the dinosaur was Robert Hubbel’s idea and he presented it to Miller. From there, John Glusick was in charge of the sheet metal and Sam Graham was the master welder with the help of his students.
Now that Stage 1, the adoption, is complete, Smith said Stage 2 will begin. The second stage has two parts: building a stratigraphic wall and a geographic timeline. The wall could range anywhere from 40 feet to 400 feet and it will show off the location and relevance of different formations in Cañon City. It’ll also explain why shark teeth, crocodile skulls, marine shells and other marine remains can be found in Cañon City.
Stage 3 involves planting a jurassic garden in the area of the stegosaurus.
There is no set timeline for the second and third parts of the project, and Smith said it could take 2-3 years.
“Cañon City is as good as it gets for stegosaurus anywhere,” local retired geologist Dan Grenard said. “… We are stegosaurus. It’s really wonderful to have this here.”
Three stegosaurus dinosaurs have been discovered in the Cañon City area, Grenard told the audience. The first was in 1885 and is still on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
The second was found in 1937 by a high school teacher and his students and is on display at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
The third was found in 1992 and was removed with the help of local volunteers, experts from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Colorado Quarries and the Army, which airlifted the dinosaur with its Chinook helicopter.