September 7 - Happy Birthday, Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden

Posted on September 7, 2021

This is an update of my post published on September 7, 2010:

Key Points

Born in 1829, the American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden did pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century.

In other words, he studied the gorgeous, rugged Rockies!

I’ve taken several trips through the Rockies, and I love the land—the jagged peaks and glacial tors, the lakes and waterfalls and cascading streams, the elk and deer and moose, and especially the rustling aspens among the stately dark pines.

One of my favorite spots on Earth is Yellowstone, and Hayden not only did an early study of it, he helped convince Congress to set aside that land as a National Park.

Yeah, Hayden!

Hayden is acknowledged as having made the first discovery of dinosaur remains in North America. He found some isolated teeth during an exploration of the upper Missouri River. I don’t know if he actually identified the teeth as belonging to dinosaurs. Later, many dinosaur skeletons were found in the West, and a couple of Great Dinosaur Rushes occurred as paleontologists rushed to be the best or to find the most.

But Hayden was first.

Celebrate Hayden!

Check out this photo gallery of Yellowstone’s beauties. Or check out an entire hour of beautiful Yellowstone sights!

Geysers are rare in the world—but not at Yellowstone! More than half of the entire world’s geysers are in that one national park!

Learn about geysers using Alka-Seltzer and liquid soap or Diet Coke and Mentos.

(It’s important to use Diet Coke, because the regular stuff is really sticky. Actually, it’s important to do geyser experiments outside in a place that doesn’t mind a gushing mess!)

It’s fun to check out where different dinosaur fossils have been found. But remember that dinosaurs-in-general lived for about 165 MILLION years – more than 800 times longer than humans have been around!