By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The new paleo lab at the Fort Hays State University Sternberg Museum of Natural History is now open thanks in part to the mother of Dr. Laura E. Wilson, curator of paleontology.
During Monday’s ribbon cutting ceremony with the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce, Wilson told the crowd it was one of her goals when she started at the Sternberg six years ago to modernize and expand the prep lab and research lab facilities.
“This is really important to our central mission in terms of a crossroads between research, collections, exhibits and education,” said Wilson.
As an academic, Wilson knows how to apply for grants for research and data-driven projects. But she did not have any experience in finding funding for infrastructure renovation.
“I knew we had to take a different path. So, thanks to my very Southern mother who taught me from a young age how to host a party, we came up with the idea of throwing a gala.”
In spring 2016, a gala for interested patrons kicked off a fundraising campaign. Another spring gala was held in 2017 and the initial capital was raised for the project.
“That got the ball rolling for being able to apply to the Dane G. Hansen Foundation for a matching grant.”
Soon after that, Mike and Pam Everhart came forward with “a very generous donation that helped us realize our goals were not only attainable but in a reasonable time frame, like my lifetime,” joked Wilson.
The Everharts are an important part of western Kansas paleontology and Western Interior Seaway paleontology.
The couple have been collecting fossils in the area for decades and donating them to the Sternberg Museum.
“The Everharts are number three on the list of most specimens collected and put into the museum,” director Dr. Reese Barrick said. “They are number two behind only George Sternberg for the number of fossils from the Western Interior Seaway that are here in the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.”
Mike Everhart is a museum adjunct curator and author of “Oceans of Kansas” which highlights discoveries made in Kansas by George Sternberg and other paleontologists in the state.
“I’m always amazed in telling groups about the ocean that covered this state for millions of years,” Everhart said. They give me this blank look like ‘we’re in the middle of the Midwestern desert here. What ocean?’ But when you start really looking at the discoveries that have been made in Kansas and the fossils that occur naturally – some of the best in the world – it’s pretty apparent that Kansas has not always been high and dry.”
The new “Oceans of Kansas Fossil Prep Lab” is named for the Everharts. It’s part of the new work area called the “Dane G. Hansen Paleontology Research Center.”
“Mike and Pam Everhart are among the most influential paleontologists in the country on the Western Interior Seaway and some of the most influential people in science in the state of Kansas,” added Barrick.
Kaiden O’Dell, a freshman geosciences major from Salina, is one of the first five FHSU students who have been training in the lab.
“Prep work is a large part of paleontology,” said O’Dell. “It’s not just getting the fossils out of the ground. It’s making sure you don’t break them once they do get out of the ground. We’re learning how to preserve them so you can do research later.”
Being selected to the first student team for training is a dream come true for O’Dell.
“Every little kid likes dinosaurs and my parents bought me a dinosaur encyclopedia. It had real stories about what they would be doing back then,” O’Dell recalled. “Later we came to visit the Sternberg Museum. I saw these amazing and beautiful fossils of fish and giant lizards that were in Kansas. I think it sparked something in me that’s never died since.”
Dr. Tisa Mason, FHSU president, described the advanced paleo lab as a “gateway to fascination, inquisition and science.”
The wide lab windows open to allow workers to explain their hands-on processes to people touring the museum.
In April, Sternberg Museum will host the annual meeting of the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology whose members come from across the United States and Canada.
