Gone Paleoichthyologizin' In Western Wyoming, 1994*

Perhaps the best day fishing we ever had was on the high and dry plains of southwestern Wyoming, near the small but famous town of Kemmerer, in a sort of a "u-pick-em" fossil bed for 50 million year old fish. No rod, no reel, no bait, no license. Just a geologist's hammer and pick, and a long spatula (suitable for Parisienne crepes), and a guide from Warfield's Fossil Safaris.

Kemmerer is famous because it was the
birthplace of J. C. Penney and site of his
first store; all of this of some personal
interest since a few years previously
Vicki had represented now-defunct
Republic Bank's personal banking arm
in moving a number of Penney's
executives from NYC to Dallas; well,
Plano

En route to the fossil fields, a cow practicing the corpse pose

Eureka! Vicki has found an unusual specimen

A fresh water shrimp-like creature; so unusual that it would be
sent to the U of Wyoming for study (so they said)

Mainly we caught these guys, a couple dozen, limiting out; it's
not catch and release; you can buy these fossil imprints at rock
and fossil shops all over the planet (and ceramic copies);
better if you catch them yourself, and Kemmerer is the place to
do it; we kept ours in a special glass-covered barn-wood buffet
table in our home in  Missoula; of course now they're in a box
somewhere in our storage unit in East Missoula; sic transit,
Gloria

*from the Sherouse Family Digital Archives