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Feature article
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Gray Fossil Site a first-hand look at Miocene era
By Rain Smith
It’s a project 7 million years in the making. Due to unresolved property issues, it will be held up a bit longer.
The Gray Fossil Site was scheduled to open in fall 2006 but now will likely not open until January 2007.
The site was formed 4.5 to 7 million years ago along what’s now Highway 75 in Gray. A sinkhole there formed a natural trap, its steep sides trapping animals inside. The carcasses piled up, years went by and the sinkhole became a pond.
However, dangers were not washed away. Beneath the waters surface alligators hid for unsuspecting prey. Saber-tooth cats, bone-crushing dogs and Short-faced Bear lurked in the forests shadows.
“It was basic life and death,” says Dr. Steven Wallace. “Even if just a couple animals fall in every year, that adds up.”
Wallace, an East Tennessee State University paleontologist, said once the fossil site is built, researchers will spend 20 years researching animals — or at least parts of them — and plants to paint a picture of ancient life in the region.
“Most museums you see a fossil sitting on the shelf with a little label saying where it’s from, and it’s so far removed from where it originated,” Wallace said. “Here you’ll literally be able to see them in the lab cleaning them, and look out the back window and right there is where they’re coming out of the ground. Having it all there together is really neat.”
Wallace said the Gray site paints a different picture of the Miocene era, as little is known about that time in our region of the country.
“What’s nice is it’s the whole picture,” he said. “We have pollen, plant and leaf fossils and all kinds of vertebrae. Everything from frogs and salamanders and fish to alligators and big mammals.”
Wallace and team have also found two previously unrecorded species, a panda and badger, each of Eurasian origin.
“It’s one of those things that as a paleontologist you’re lucky to do it a couple times in your life,” Wallace said. “And for us to have two right together is great.”
There are many animals Wallace said the site should unearth, but has yet to find, mostly carnivorous; bone crushing dogs, large bears, various big cats.
ETSU officials had planned to open bids for the 35,000-square-foot museum and laboratory in April, said David Collins, ETSU vice president for business and finance, but the opening was delayed when it was learned the Tennessee Department of Transportation had not transferred a parcel along Tennessee Highway 75 to the university because of an resolved right of way issue with a neighboring property owner.
ETSU intends to place a parking lot for the visitors center on that section of the site, Collins said, so rather than have to re-bid the contracts if circumstances change, the university chose to wait for TDOT to resolve the issue.
Before fossils were discovered on the site during road construction in 2000, the state purchased the land through eminent domain from the Fulkerson Farm Trust to widen the highway. The right of way was established, providing Fulkerson family members with access to the remainder of their property.
“When we originally bought the right of way from the trust, it was based on a side road being tied into [Highway] 75,” Kim Keelor, TDOT's public information officer, said in a written statement. “After the right of way deal was reached, the fossils were discovered, and the road was not tied into [Highway] 75.”
Fulkerson family spokesman John Chambers said the state once told family members that TDOT planned to reroute the road but more recently informed them it would stay closed, leaving the trust no access to Highway 75 and an inability to develop portions of the property. He said TDOT approached the family about the need for damages.
Chambers said family members had not determined whether they would like to see the right of way moved, the road rerouted or damages awarded since the state had not come forward with an offer.
The facility is being funded by an $8 million transportation grant and about $2 million in matching funds raised by the university.
Sam Watson of the Johnson City Press contributed to this story.
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