Stonerose Interpretive Center facts for kids
Sign at Boot Hill 1992
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Location of Republic, Washington
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| Named after | Rose family fossils found at the site |
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| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Wes Wehr, Bert Chadick, Madeline Perry, Gary Anderson, Richard Slagle, Klifton Frazier |
| Legal status | 501c(3) |
| Focus | Eocene fossils of Northern Ferry County |
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Key people
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Solea Kabakov, Director Travis Wellman, Operations Manager |
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Parent organization
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Friends of Stonerose Fossils |
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Employees
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3 |
| Website | https://stonerosefossil.org/ |
The Stonerose Interpretive Center & Eocene Fossil Site is a special museum and fossil dig site in Republic, Washington. It's a non-profit organization, meaning it's run for the public good, not to make money. The center opened in 1989.
Stonerose is home to amazing fossils that have been shown in famous magazines like National Geographic Magazine and Sunset magazine. Many scientists also study the fossils found here.
Discovering Ancient Life: History of Stonerose
The main fossil site, located near Highway 20 in Republic, Washington, was first found in 1977. An artist named Wesley "Wes" Wehr and a young paleontologist (someone who studies fossils) named Kirk Johnson discovered it. Kirk was a high school student from Seattle at the time.
The idea for the Stonerose Interpretive Center came from talks between Wes Wehr and Bert Chadick in the mid-1980s. Bert was on the Republic City Council and noticed Wes collecting fossils. They thought a public fossil center could help the local economy. It would also let people explore a "world-class" fossil site and learn from researchers.
The city of Republic bought a house for the center and helped fund staff. Madilane Perry became the first curator in 1987. She learned a lot about ancient plants from Wes Wehr. The house was fixed up, and glass cases were added to display the fossils.
The center officially opened in August 1987. It was named "Stonerose" because of the rose family fossils found in the rocks. In 1988, a bigger and easier-to-reach fossil site was found. This led to the creation of the non-profit group Friends of Stonerose Fossils in 1989. This group helps support the center.
The center later moved to a new house across from the city park. This house was expanded in 1996. Through fundraising, the Friends of Stonerose Fossils bought many city blocks of land, including the "Boot Hill" site. This site has about 100 feet of exposed rock layers with fossils.
The center has welcomed many visitors over the years. In 1995, over 9,000 people visited, which was more than the entire population of Ferry County that year! By 2014, the center averaged about 6,000 visitors each year. Since it opened, over 120,000 people have visited.
In 2019, the center started planning to move again. They raised money to buy a 4,000 square foot building on Clark Avenue, the city's main street. By mid-2020, they had raised over $20,000, bought the building, and reopened safely.
The fossil dig site is a short walk from the museum. Visitors can dig for fossils with a permit. You can keep a few small fossils you find. However, important or rare finds are kept by the center for study. When a special fossil is found, its details and the finder's name are recorded. The center asks that finders be recognized in any scientific papers about the fossils. Some new species have even been named after the people who found them!
The Friends of Stonerose Fossils still own and run the interpretive center and fossil site today.
Ancient Earth: Geology of the Fossil Beds
The Stonerose fossil beds are from the Eocene Epoch, which was about 51 million years ago. At that time, the area where Republic, Washington, is now was part of an ancient lake.
The bottom of this lake was covered in volcanic ash. Over millions of years, this ash hardened into sedimentary rock. This rock became a fine-grained type of shale called Klondike Mountain Formation. These rocks hold amazing fossils of ancient insects, fish, leaves, twigs, and even bird feathers.
The Republic fossil beds are very important because they show the earliest known records of the Rosaceae (rose family) and Aceraceae (maple family). Since the fossil beds were rediscovered, more than 200 different species have been found here as fossils.
Fossils: What You Can Find
The Eocene fossil sites in Republic are part of a larger group of ancient lake beds. These beds stretch north into British Columbia, Canada. They include places like the Princeton Chert, McAbee Fossil Beds, and Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park. All these sites have many fossils of plants, insects, fish, and other ancient life.
The Stonerose Interpretive Center's logo is a fossilized Florissantia quilchenensis. This is a flower from an extinct plant related to modern cocoa. It was found by Lisa Barksdale, a former Stonerose curator, and Wes Wehr. This special fossil was featured in National Geographic Magazine in July 2002.
The center's collection also includes other important fossils, like rare Dillhoffia cachensis fruits. The fossils and the center have even been part of a traveling exhibit called "Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline." This exhibit, created by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll, highlights the fossil history of the west coast from Alaska to Washington.
