Poets meet paleontologists this weekend in Casper

Dee the Mammoth fossil

"Dee and the Mammoth" book

Paleontologists and geologists are in Casper through Sunday for the 17th Annual Tate Conference. It will feature topics ranging from “Asian Elephant Behavior” to “Ice Age Discovery in Snowmass Village.”


Friday presentations include discussions on “Climate Change at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary,” The Largest Mounted Mammoth in North America, Dee the Mammoth,” “Cats of the Camelot Local Fauna,” and others. Saturday presentations will include talks on ambush predators, the Dire wolf of Rancho La Brea, Pleistocene bear communities, the giant short-faced bear, and Porcupine Cave. The day will end with Keynote speaker Steven R. Holen, curator of archeology for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Holen will speak on the exciting discovery and current excavation project the museum is engaged in at Snowmass Village, Colo., “Ice Age Discovery in Snowmass Village: A Mid-to Early Wisconsin Fossil Locality High in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.” The excavation is the largest-ever excavation the museum has ever been involved in. As of May 24, 2011, museum crews had found more than 100 bones which included two mastodon skulls; two mastodon pelvises; three mammoth tusks; mastodon vertebrae, ribs, wrist and ankle bones, and large bones including the upper arm and forearm; a sloth forearm; bison wrist bone; and deer pelvis. Registration is $40 each for the first and third field trips June 2 and 5, and $150 for the Friday through Saturday portion of the conference, June 3 and 4. To register stop by the Tate Geological Museum on the Casper College campus, or call the museum at 268-2447, 800-442-2963, ext. 2447, email dschaff@caspercollege.edu, or visit www.caspercollege.edu/tate.

Meanwhile, poets and writers are gathering June 3-5 in Casper for sessions like these:

• "The Ghost That Got Into My House" (after the James Thurber story) by Lucia St. Clair Robson
• "Appropriate Appropriating" by poet Chris Fishbach
• Pete McCarthy's sessions on online marketing and social media
• The ever-popular open mic sessions on Friday and Saturday nights
• A closing talk by Tom Empey, actor, director and recently-retired chair of the Casper College theatre department

FMI: http://www.wyowriters.org/Resources/WWINC_ConferenceBrochure2011.pdf

If you are a writer and geologist, you would have a tough time choosing events.

The big question is: Is Casper big enough to accommodate both poets and paleontolgists this weekend?

Tune into this blog Monday to find out.