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Dinosaur National Monument

the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers
Multiple States


This park has fossils of dinosaurs including the T-Rex and Paradox kinds. The dinosaur fossil beds were discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass, a paleontologist working and collecting for the Carnegie Museum.

Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah just to the north of the town of Jensen, Utah.

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the dinosaur beds as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915.

The monument boundaries were expanded in 1938 from the original 80-acre tract surrounding the dinosaur quarry in Utah, to its present extent of over 200,000 acres (800 km�) in Utah and Colorado, encompassing the spectacular river canyons of the Green and Yampa.

The Dinosaur wall located within the Dinosaur Quarry building in the park consists of a steeply tilted rock layer which contains hundreds of dinosaur fossils. The enclosing rock has been chipped away to reveal the fossil bones intact for public viewing. However, in July 2006, the Quarry Visitor Center was closed indefinitely due to structural problems that have plagued the building since it was built on unstable clay in 1957.

Dinosaur National Monument Categories


Other Dinosaur National Monument Resources

Map of the Area Around
Dinosaur National Monument