Wortman Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1st : 1891)

Dates

• Existence: approximately June 1891 - September 1891

Historical Note

In 1891, the newly created Department of Mammalian Palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural History, sent Jacob Lawson Wortman to the Big Horn region and Wind River Valleys to explore deposits of fossil mammals in the Rocky Mountain Region of the western United States. The plan of the department was to form representative series from each of the twelve successive horizons of the west to present a historical development of the evolution of the mammals in North America. (1, p.11) The first in a series of five expeditions to the Rocky Mountains was conducted almost solely by J. L. Wortman, with M. L. Jones of the Red Lodge assisting. (2, p.144) Wortman made collections in Wahsatch (Big Horn) and lower Bridger (Wind River) beds during the summer of 1891. (2, p.81)

A narrative of the expedition written by Wortman can be found in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, volume 4, no. 1 (1892) titled, “Fossil mammals of the Wahsatch and Wind River beds: collection of 1891”.

SOURCES

(1) American Museum of Natural History Annual Report for 1892

(2) Osborn, Henry Fairfield and Jacob Lawson Wortman. Fossil mammals of the Wahsatch and Wind River beds: collection of 1891. Bulletin / American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 4, No. 1. New York: Published by order of the Trustees, American Museum of Natural History, 1892. http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1555

Places

• Bighorn Basin (Mont. and Wyo.)
• Wind River Valley (Wyo.)

Topics

• AMNH Expeditions
• AMNH Expeditions -- Vertebrate Paleontology