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Use of archival photographs to rediscover the locality of the
Holyrood elasmosaur (Ellsworth County, Kansas)
MICHAEL J. EVERHART
Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas 67601
meverhar@fhsu.edu
In 1931, an oilfield geologist working in Ellsworth County discovered large bones
eroding from a limestone exposure along a creek bank about two miles west of the town
of Holyrood, Kansas. He notified George F. Sternberg of the remains and later that
year, Sternberg and his assistant, Myrl V. Walker, collected the remains of a large,
headless elasmosaur from the “Lincoln Marble (Benton).” The specimen (UNSM
50136) was sold to the University of Nebraska State Museum in 1935, where it was
prepared from the remaining matrix. One of the front paddles has been on display in
the UNSM since that time. Sternberg was also an accomplished photographer and took
several black and white photographs of the locality. The photos were used by Harold
Ehler, the grandson of the person who had leased the land at the time of the discovery,
and the author to confirm the locality and stratigraphic occurrence of this relatively
unknown but important specimen.
Key Words: Plesiosaur, Greenhorn Limestone, Lincoln Limestone, Late Cretaceous,
Turonian, Kansas.
TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANSAS
ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. 110, no. 1/2
p. 135-143 (2007)
INTRODUCTION
The first known elasmosaur was discovered in
western Kansas by a military surgeon, Dr.
Theophilus Turner, in the Pierre Shale near
Fort Wallace in 1867. The remains were
shipped to Philadelphia where they were
described as Elasmosaurus platyurus by E.D.
Cope (1868). Subsequently, the specimen
became the center of a famous fossil legend
when Joseph Leidy (1870, p. 9; Everhart,
2005b) reported that Cope had reconstructed
the “skeleton in a reversed position to the true
one.” Since that time, the remains of less than
twenty other elasmosaur specimens have been
discovered in the Cretaceous of Kansas and
reported by various authors including
Williston (1890, 1903, 1906), Williston and
Moodie (1913), Lane (1946), Welles (1943,
1952, 1962, 1970); Carpenter (1999), Storrs
(1999), Cicimurri and Everhart (2001),
Everhart (2000, 2005a, 2006), Sachs (2005)
and Schumacher and Everhart (2005). Most
of those specimens, however, are relatively
incomplete, especially those from the Smoky
Hill Chalk (Everhart, 2006). Prior to the
discovery of the Ellsworth plesiosaur, George
F. Sternberg had also collected the partial
remains of an elasmosaur in 1927 and sold it
to the United States National Museum
(Everhart, 2006).
In 1931, G. F. Sternberg was contacted by Joe
Purzer, an oil field geologist from Bartlesville,
Oklahoma, who was working in Ellsworth
County near the small town of Holyrood,
Kansas. From Sternberg’s notes and letters
between the two men (Sternberg archives,
Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University),
Purzer told Sternberg that he had found large
bones eroding from a creek bank about two
miles west of Holyrood. Sternberg and his
assistant at the time, Myrl V. Walker, traveled
to the locality and collected the scattered
remains of a large plesiosaur from the creek
bed over a 10 day period in late October,
1931. The specimen (Sternberg’s field number
Sp. 117-31) included most of four paddles,
vertebrae from all sections of the vertebral
column, ribs, a partial pelvic girdle, two teeth
and more than two hundred gastroliths
(Sternberg’s field notes and description,
Sternberg archives, Forsyth Library;
Schumacher and Everhart, 2005). There are
also two Squalicorax falcatus teeth curated
with the gastroliths.
Although Sternberg (unpublished letter to Joe
Purzer, dated January 6, 1932) recognized
that it was “an interesting scientific
specimen,” portions of which “can be easily
restored for exhibit,” the remains were not
documented in the scientific record until
recently (Schumacher and Everhart, 2005).
Later in the same letter, Sternberg added that
it “will not any more than pay me back for the
expense I will incur. I am glad, however, to
have it as we often have to do extra work for
scientific reasons alone.”
In a typewritten sales catalog document used
by Sternberg to advertise the material, he
describes the elasmosaur as the “incomplete
remains of a large individual with characters
different than any other specimen we have
[been] able to find described.” He also noted
that there “were hundreds of shark teeth
found about this skeleton.” In the “packing
136 Everhart
list” that he sent to Dr. Barbour at the
University of Nebraska with the specimen,
Sternberg wrote that the remains had been
“collected from a very wet quarry. Much rain
fell while it was being removed and we had
hundreds of visitors which made the job a
very difficult one.”
An unpublished letter from G. F. Sternberg to
the Fort Hays College president, C.E.
Warwick, dated December 2, 1934, indicates
that two paddles from the specimen were then
on display in the college museum. A single,
black and white photograph (Fig.1) showing a
reconstructed paddle and gastroliths
associated with the specimen was located by
the author in the archives of the Sternberg
Museum of Natural History (see also
Schumacher and Everhart, 2005, fig. 15).
In 1935 the specimen was sold, partially
prepared, to Dr. Barbour at the University of
Nebraska State Museum for $250
(approximately $3500 in 2005 dollars). It was
originally curated as UNSM 1195 and has
since been renumbered as UNSM 50135. The
six foot long paddle originally mounted by
George Sternberg has been on display in the
University of Nebraska State Museum since
shortly after the date of purchase.
Figure 1. A 1930s photograph by G.F. Sternberg of one of the paddles and associated gastroliths
from the Holyrood elasmosaur as originally exhibited in the Fort Hays college museum.
Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 110(1/2), 2007 137
Figure 2. “51-31 Plesiosaur found near Holyrood, Kansas.” G.F. Sternberg (right) and M.V.
Walker (left) are in the process of turning over one of the plaster and burlap jackets containing
part of the specimen. Note articulated dorsal vertebrae, ribs and gastroliths in the foreground.
138 Everhart
Figure 3. “52-31 Note gastroliths or gizzard stones.” M.V. Walker holds three of the more than
200 gastroliths discovered in association with the elasmosaur remains.
Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 110(1/2), 2007 139
The locality was listed by Sternberg variously
as “2 miles west” or “2 miles northwest” of
Holyrood, Kansas. He also noted that the
remains were discovered in the “Lincoln
Marble” and indicated that it was part of the
“Fort Benton.” This terminology is outdated
and has been replaced by the Lincoln
Limestone Member of the Greenhorn
Limestone (Schumacher and Everhart, 2005).
The Lincoln Limestone is Late Cenomanian
in age.
Materials
The photograph of the plesiosaur paddle and
gastroliths (Fig.1) was located in the archives
of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History,
Hays, Kansas. Six black and white,
approximately 4" x 6" photographs (Figs. 2-7)
were glued into album number 2 in the
George F. Sternberg collection in the archives
of the Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State
University, Hays, Kansas. The hand-written
notes under each picture in the scrapbook and
numbers (51-31 through 56-31) are included
in the figure captions. From Sternberg’s
typewritten notes, there are at least two
pictures missing (57-31 and 58-31). They
may have been sent to the University of
Nebraska with the specimen. George
Sternberg appears in the first photograph of
Figure 4. “53-31 Visitors to the Holyrood Quarry.” Photograph of the locality taken while facing
southwest. Looking to the west, the unnamed tributary of Plum Creek flows from right to left.
Figure 5. “54-31 Holyrood Quarry. Walker
talking to visitors.” This photograph was taken
from the high bank on the south side of the
creek. Sternberg’s truck is parked behind the
group.
140 Everhart
the series (51-31), and his assistant, Myrl V.
Walker, is identifiable in five of the photos.
Also, two unpublished letters dated January 6
and January 28, 1932, from George F.
Sternberg to Joseph Purzer, were located in
the Myrl V. Walker collection, also in the
Forsyth Library archives.
DISCUSSION
Plesiosaurs are relatively rare as fossils and
their infrequent occurrence in Kansas rocks is
valid testimony to that fact. Even when their
remains are located, they are often
fragmentary, suggesting that the plesisoaurs
were either torn apart by scavengers
(Everhart, 2005a) or the results of bloated
carcasses that that fell apart as they drifted
over considerable distances (Everhart 2005c).
The Holyrood plesiosaur (UNSM 50136) is
one of the largest and most complete
elasmosaur specimens ever collected in
Kansas but its locality and stratigraphic
occurrence were uncertain. The rediscovery of
six of Sternberg’s photographs in August,
2005 provided useful information regarding
the site. However, the area to the west of
Holyrood, Kansas, is mostly relatively flat
cropland with no major drainages and few
visible exposures of rocks. An initial
reconnaissance of the area by the author in
August, 2005, did not produce any likely
matches to the creek bank shown in the
photographs. Subsequent contact with Neysa
Brown, the City Clerk of Holyrood, located
Harold Ehler, the grandson of the person
listed by Sternberg as leasing the land in
1931.
Figure 6. “55-31” At least nine cars and 20 people are visible in this picture looking north over the dig
site. Sternberg noted that there were hundreds of visitors to the site during the 10 days that it took to
recovery the specimen. M.V. Walker is facing the camera in the foreground at right.
Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 110(1/2), 2007 141
I made arrangements to visit Mr. Ehler in
Holyrood in October, 2006. Although not born
until two years after the remains were
collected, he was able to identify his
grandfather’s car, and his aunt and uncle in
the pictures and later provided me with a copy
of a single paragraph article regarding the
discovery that was published on the front page
of The Holyrood Gazette, November 4, 1931.
Mr. Ehler recalled family stories about the
event and recognized the locality from the
pictures. He was able to take me to the quarry
site and noted that during the 1930s the
sheltered meadow area had been used by local
residents as a picnic area and baseball
diamond. A large exposure of Lincoln
Limestone on the south side of the creek
matched the area shown in the photographs,
but no physical evidence of the dig remained
after more than 70 years.
The site (NW 1/4, Section 8, T17S, R10W,
Ellsworth County) is located in the bend of an
unnamed, intermittent stream that flows
northeasterly into Plum Creek and then to the
Smoky Hill River. Two shark teeth
(Cretoxyrhina mantelli and Squalicorax sp.)
and an ammonite were collected at the site for
future reference. Although damaged by
erosion, ammonite was identified as a
probable internal mold of Calycoceras or
Pseudocalycoceras sp. (Schumacher, pers.
comm, 2006), a lower Greenhorn species (see
Hattin, 1975, Plate 4, a, b, e). The ammonite
and the lithography of the limestone in the
creek bed confirms Sternberg’s original
stratigraphic determination.
Although the discovery of the specimen and
its subsequent sale to the University of
Nebraska State Museum is well documented,
the specimen has never been adequately
Figure 7. “56-31 Walker talking to visitors.” Another crowd of 21 people listens as M.V. Walker
describes the work being done to collect the plesiosaur.
142 Everhart
studied or described. G. F. Sternberg’s
photographs of the October, 1931 dig on this
specimen provide important information in
regard its stratigraphic occurrence and
locality for future workers.
CONCLUSION
The photographs taken by G. F. Sternberg in
October, 1931, of the recovery of the Holyrood
elasmosaur (UNSM 50136) provide a valuable
historical and scientific record of the event.
They were useful in relocating the dig site and
verifying the stratigraphic occurrence of the
specimen.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I sincerely thank Patty Nicholas, archivist at
the Forsyth Library, for her assistance in
obtaining the photographs and
correspondence reported here. Neysa Brown,
City Clerk of Holyrood, Kansas answered my
request for assistance for locating someone
who might recall the events surrounding the
dig on the plesiosaur. Harold Ehler, Holyrood,
Kansas, was familiar with the event, a
provided local newspaper story, and identified
the locality from the pictures that were
provided. Bruce Schumacher helped identify
the ammonite material collected at the site
and confirmed G. F. Sternberg’s stratigraphic
determination. George Corner, University of
Nebraska State Museum, allowed access to the
elasmosaur specimen and relevant documents
in his files.
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