Hell Creek

With Hell Creek, Montana: America's Key to the Prehistoric Past, by Lowell DingusI seem to be firmly moving towards one trend for the year in books...books on paleontology, geology, evolution and the like.

Too bad the book wasn't as good as I had hoped. Dingus is a paleontologist who has worked at (among other places) The American Museum of Natural History. He worked on the repositioning of the T-Rex skeleton, for example. I was hoping that in Hell Creek I would get an overview of his experiences as a paleontologist and why Hell Creek was such an important place for the field. Well, at least part of the book was that.

Mostly it is a constant use of fancy phrasing where simple would do. Dingus throws in constant references to mythology, to the point where you feel it is just an attempt to show off. He spends a good portion of the book describing the various conflicts between settlers, the U.S. Army, and native Americans. A smaller portion describes the experiences of early bone hunters" such as Barnum Brown. And one portion describes the town and county (and focuses on a stand-off between the government and a group of ranchers who were trying to avoid foreclosure).

I'd rather have had the book be about his experiences and concentrate on Barnum Brown. If you want to read about Lewis and Clark, there are many better books on the subject. Heck, I wanted to read about dinosaurs!