| The new dinosaur, animantarxramaljonesi, in its new home at the Museum of the San Rafael. |
Emery County’s own Animantarxramaljonesi dinosaur was unveiled at the Museum of the San Rafael on Thursday night. Standing in front of the curtain, Emery County Commissioner Jeff Horrocks, along with museum director Margaret Keller, introduced Ramal Jones, the discoverer of the dinosaur and Clifford Oviatt the mural artist.
Jones expressed his appreciation to Jan Petersen, former director of the museum, for her contribution to the completion of this project. She was instrumental in securing the grant monies to have the dinosaur assembled.
“This has been a long, long, long journey,” said Jones. “My wife Carole and I began looking for dinosaur bones in 1991. In 1993, we were in the San Rafael, just about five miles east of Castle Dale when we found something. It’s amazing to realize that from just a few bone fragments we found on the surface, and the research and digs conducted by the College of Eastern Utah, now an entire dinosaur is in our museum.”
Jones went on to say, “this has been a dream of mine to see this specimen in the museum. Thanks to CEU Museum and all of the people who came to help with the digs. People from all over the United States came to help.”
| Ramal Jones stands with the replica of the dinosaur he found east of Castle Dale. |
Oviatt, the artist in charge of the mural design in the Animantarxramaljonesi display told of the contribution of many other artists involved in this project. “I want to thank my wife Verlynn who helped with the project. Also, Blair Larsen, Dallas Larsen, La Raine Johnston, Fern Oliver and Francis Hansen.
“This has been quite an experience to work on this mural,” said Oviatt.
Keller and Oviatt handed out prizes to the winners of the coloring contest. Each of the schools in Emery County participated. The winners are: Jamie Gilbert; Sarah Hatch, Lon Huntsman, Savannah Williams, Ariel Sundstrom, Daeden Behling and Tyler Morris.