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Baca County’s “lord of the sea”
The 1939 Plesiosaur Discovery in Baca County
In March 1939, one of Colorado’s most remarkable fossil discoveries emerged from the eroded banks of a remote creek in Baca County, about 13.5 miles north of Pritchett. A recent flood had carved away a 20-foot shale cliff on the Earl Kern’s farm which was occupied by Vernon Van Campen, revealing fossilized bones embedded in the rock about four feet above the creek floor.
Fred Roth, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) employee working on a local construction project, noticed the bones while searching for quarry rock to use in bridge construction. Recognizing their unusual nature, Roth informed Van Campen, who quickly contacted Andrew A. Weresh, principal of Pritchett High School. Weresh wasted no time in notifying the Colorado Museum of Natural History (today’s Denver Museum of Nature & Science).
When museum representative Robert Lamburg arrived, he found that “a few bones are missing. It is possible, excavators say, that the bones were carried away by sightseers who did not realize their value or the critical need to keep them with the rest of the specimen.” An appeal went out for the return of any missing pieces, but most were never recovered.
Excavators began digging directly into the creek bank to recover the head and neck, which local reports said “may be twenty feet long.” In the intense heat—“the thermometer several afternoons registered 125 degrees”—Lamburg and his crew, including Arthur Mills and Vernon Van Campen, carefully dug around each bone, encased it in burlap and plaster of paris, and removed it “still covered with dirt under the plaster of paris” for transport to Denver.
At the time, the fossil was identified as Elasmosaurus, one of the best-known long-necked plesiosaurs. The animal was estimated to measure 35–40 feet in length, with a neck containing more than 60 vertebrae. Museum director Alfred M. Bailey hailed it as “one of the most remarkable fossil discoveries ever made.”
In 1943, paleontologist Samuel P. Welles reexamined the specimen and determined it represented a new genus and species. He named it Thalassomedon haningtoni—“lord of the sea”—in honor of Charles H. Hanington, president of the Colorado Museum of Natural History.
Thalassomedon was an elasmosaurid plesiosaur that lived about 97–95 million years ago, during the middle Cretaceous period when much of the central United States lay beneath the Western Interior Seaway. With its long neck, streamlined body, and flipper-like limbs, it was a swift predator, well adapted to hunting in open marine waters.
The holotype specimen from Baca County remains in the collections of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where it continues to provide valuable insights into the diversity of marine reptiles that once swam in the ancient seas over Colorado. From its chance discovery on a windswept Baca County farm to its lasting place in the scientific record, the 1939 plesiosaur find remains one of the county’s most extraordinary contributions to natural history.
Sources and Notes
- Democrat Herald, (Springfield, Colorado) June 15, 1939 – “Dinosaur Found in County – 65 Vertebrae Removed from Ground.” Details the initial discovery, missing bones, and early excavation work.
- Springfield Herald, (Springfield, Colorado) June 29, 1939 – “Excavation of ‘Pleiasaur’ Completed – Fossil Sent to Denver Display.” Provides completion details, WPA involvement, and working conditions.
- Welles, Samuel P. 1943. “Elasmosaurid Plesiosaurs with Description of the New Genus Thalassomedon.” University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 189–236.
- Denver Museum of Nature & Science archives – Specimen record for holotype Thalassomedon haningtoni.
- Baca County History, Baca County Historical Society, 1983.
Research Note:
The ability to revisit this story with such depth is possible because of two invaluable resources: the newly digitized 1983 Baca County History Book and the Democrat Herald archives. Together, they allow us to cross-check local memory with original reporting, confirm period details, and connect them with later scientific findings. As our research continues, these archives serve not just as records of the past, but as living tools that bring new clarity and depth to Baca County’s place in history.
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