Not exactly what I was expecting but still interesting. Hell Creek, Montana is more of a travelogue and political commentary than a work of paleontology. Author Lowell Dingus does a good job of combining popular dinosaur lore with the history of the area around Jordan, Montana.


The Hell Creek has probably passed the Morrison and the Chinle Group as the dinosaur-bearing stratigraphic unit in the US, not because the fossils are particularly abundant or well preserved but because it transgresses the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary and therefore is the focal point for studies of the KT extinction (in geological map abbreviations, Є is Cambrian, C is Carboniferous, and K is Cretaceous). Like many paleontologists, Dingus was an “asteroid denier” when Alverez et al. proposed an impact as the terminal event. Despite locating an iridium anomaly in the Hell Creek (while trying to demonstrate there wasn’t one) Dingus still has some sour grapes about the subject, but it’s interesting to read how a real scientist adapts to a change in the paradigm.


The history part of the book chronicles the adventures of Crazy Horse, Custer, and Nelson Miles in Garfield County (naming it after a national hero doubtless contributed to the violence at Little Big Horn). A more recent confrontation between the inhabitants of Justus Township and the US government provides an opportunity for discussion of the travails and politics of the local ranchers. If you don’t remember or weren’t around for Justus Township, it was a group of tax protestors (“tax protestors” is a great oversimplification of their philosophy but will do for shorthand) that holed up on a ranch in the area while standing off the FBI and miscellaneous other government agencies. Dingus is sympathetic to the ranchers but not the Townshippers.


Seems to be out only in hardcover, and thus rather high priced for a relatively short book. Worth reading but borrow from the library. ( )