Documentation and Research
Virtually no photos or other information about the Robledo tracksites are available on the Internet. But, "significant" discoveries elsewhere around the world are well represented.
WHY is this the case if this excavation was so important?
What the Bill Says
Section 4 (a)
states:
In General- In order to conserve, protect, and enhance the unique and nationally important paleontological, scientific, educational, scenic, and recreational resources and values of the public land described in subsection (b), there is established the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in the State of New Mexico.
Internet Based References About The Robledo Tracksite
| Internet Site | What is discussed | |
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This site shows the removal of the trackways in the late 1980's. Four of the five pictures on the Internet about the Robledo tracksites (prior to this website) are on this site. | |
| This site has the fifth photo that was discussed above. | ||
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This is the website of the group promoting national monument designation for the Robledo Mountains tracksite. Notice that they do not have any recent (or old) photos of trackways - because there are none! | |
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Proponents of the National Monument have
conducted numerous petition drives to show support for the
national monument. Most of the people signing the petition have
no idea of where the area is or what is (or is not) out there.
This video clip shows how using the right words can get someone to sign the most ridiculous of petitions. |
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| Internet Articles About The Abo Formation | ||
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Internet Articles About
"Significant" Paleontological Discoveries It seems that every paleontological discovery is the "most important or significant", has the "greatest abundance", "is the Rosetta Stone", or some other superlative. |
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Union Chapel Mine Photos of Union Chapel Mine Tracks |
There are dozens if not hundreds of Internet
articles about the Union Chapel Mine in Walker County, Alabama.
It is NOT a national monument and they are still pulling
thousands of specimens out of the site each year, unlike the
Robledo Mountain tracksite that has produced nothing of
significance in the last decade. Union Chapel is described as "The Union Chapel site is quantitatively and qualitatively the most important in the world for vertebrate tracefossils from the Early Pennsylvanian Period." |
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| Studies and Reports | ||
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The 1994 Smithsonian and "Holy Grail" report for
the monument proponents. The Smithsonian study was authorized by
Congress and was mandated to answer one very specific question,
"Should this site be designated as a National Park?" The report
only recommended some type of protection, but not National Park
designation. Spin doctors finally pulled one statement out of the Executive Summary about the discovery site being "one of the most scientifically significant Early Permian sites in the world" One sentence about a 1000 square foot area being significant and suddenly we need a 230 million square foot national monument. WOW! |
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This 1995 Bulletin 6 published by the New Mexico
Museum of Natural History and Science contains numerous articles
about Permian evidence in the Southern part of the state. If the
Senators would have just read the
first article by Jerry MacDonald, they would have never ever
considered this area as a National Monument. He describes in
detail how the tracks can only be exposed through excavation and
that the excavation at the discovery site had to stop because it
"became impossible" to continue. There are many other great articles in this bulletin. Here it is in its entirety. |
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