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Former teacher aims to dig up fossil donations

Reid Armstrong
Sky-Hi Daily News
Grand County

Kremmling may not have been rich in gold and silver, but it’s shale and sandstone cliffs hold a bounty of fossils that have been collected by locals for more than a century.

Retired third grade teacher Roxane White wants to dust off that natural history with a fossil display in the entrance hall of West Grand K-8 school.

“This is an idea I’ve had for a long time,” White said. “I even talked about it with the other teachers. But, when you’re teaching full time, you just don’t have the energy.”



During a recent trip to Ketchikan, Ala., White found a print of Night of the Ammonites by Ray Troll, which depicts the Fossil Ridge area in Kremmling as it may have looked during the Cretaceous Period some 80 million years ago, she said.

“When I found that print, I thought: ‘Now that I’m retired, I’m going to do this’,” White said.



She bought the print, donated it to the school and brought principal Kelly Farrell on board.

Now, White is appealing to the public to donate fossils to the display. The only caveat is that they must have been collected in Grand County

“I know people have fossil collections they’ve inherited from family members, or fossils that were found during the digging of the Wolford Mountain Reservoir,” she said.

“It would be nice to know as much information about the fossil as possible, such as where it was found,” White said, however, fossils will also be accepted without any information.

White hopes these private collections will soon become a valuable teaching tool for students. To that end, she has partnered with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to assist with identification of the collection and to provide some natural history.

White is also searching for a display case either to purchase inexpensively or as a donation.


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