Dinosaur 13 Page #3

But what I was more amazed by

was what a great job they were

doing preparing the specimen.

I'd heard inklings

that the Black Hills

Institute boys had

found something.

One of the first things

I saw was actually,

you know, part

of the skull of Sue

still encased in matrix.

65 million years later,

this animal really had the

power to give you goose bumps.

To see the look on

Pete's face and Neal's,

those guys were just like proud papas.

They would inform you.

They would go do classes

at school for the kids,

so it was very educational

for all of us,

and I learned a lot from that.

Ever since we created

that little museum

on our parents' ranch,

it's always been our dream

to have a museum here

in Hill City.

And finding Sue

the Tyrannosaurus rex,

here's the anchor

for the museum.

The whole town is behind us.

It's going to put Hill City

on the map

in a way that it's never

been on the map before.

Didn't matter how many other

projects we had going on.

With Sue, Sue took precedence.

We found out all kinds

of cool things

about this dinosaur.

Broken and healed bones

all over the skeleton.

This animal had a terrible life,

a terrible, rough life.

The skull of Sue

had actually had...

the left side of the lower jaw

had been literally ripped

out of the socket,

still held together

here at the symphysis,

where the two ends

of the lower jaw

come together in the front,

but it's been torn loose

from the socket

which allows the jaw

to open and close.

And the postorbital,

the bone

directly behind the eye,

was broken and pulled outwards

and laying

at sort of a weird angle,

so I think

that she actually died

from the attack of

another Tyrannosaurus rex.

That was a big job.

I mean, it took me a year,

literally a year

just to, you know,

remove individual bones

from around the skull

and then...

and then to take that,

the giant hip bones,

off of the nose.

We finally were able

to lift the pelvis

off of Sue's skull

in the beginning of May, 1992.

Okay. Let's go.

- Up?

- Let's go.

Taking that hip

off of Sue's skull was critical

to doing it right,

because you don't have

a second chance.

You okay there, Terry?

- Oh!

- Okay.

If you think

of two big ships, you know,

when you get those kind

of weights going on,

one little movement,

you don't what's going on.

It could be cracking it

all the way through inside.

- Okay, go.

- Go.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Yeah. That must be

where the weight is.

- Yep.

- Yep.

Okay, it's looking good.

We're at three here.

We're at three here.

What am I down to?

Hey, we're loose in

the front finally!

- All right.

- Yeah!

That moment,

when we made that separation,

that was probably

the highest point of my life.

- How was that?

- Champagne.

Hide it.

"Hide it."

There has to be a toast.

Who toasts?

This whole... I don't know.

- Cheers.

- Just, "Cheers."

- You ready?

- Ready.

- Sue.

- To old Sue.

- Sue.

- Sue.

- Sue.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

It's very good champagne.

Look at this.

I know.

We were riding

on top of the world.

We had everything going for us.

Less than a week after that,

all hell broke loose.

Bob and I were downstairs.

We were both in the prep lab.

We had a buzzer on our door

so that if anybody came in,

it would buzz

back in the prep lab,

and we could go meet them

in the front office.

It was about 7:
00 in the morning

when the buzzer went off.

We were met by two FBI agents

with a search warrant

to take Sue

and all records

belonging to Sue.

They showed up

expecting

to seal off the building

and keep anybody from going in.

"Just wait here.

We have to get Pete."

They sent me to get Pete,

and I was running.

I lived in a trailer house

behind the Institute.

"The FBI's here.

They're all over the place."

They've got yellow police tape

around the main building.

"Do not cross.

Police line. Do not cross."

It was hard to know

what was really happening

at that point.

I go down to the office,

and there's two FBI

agents sitting there.

"You've stolen this

from federal land,

and we're coming

here to seize this."

I got a phone call

from Peter Larson,

because it wasn't just the FBI.

It was personnel

from South Dakota Tech.

It was personnel from

other federal agencies,

and it was the National Guard.

The U.S. Attorney at the

time, Kevin Schieffer,

got reporters together

in the Federal Building

in Rapid City

and announced that the

seizure was ongoing.

The purpose of our action

this morning

is to preserve...

the scientific knowledge

and integrity of these fossils.

Then of course

the entire press corps

hopped in their cars,

and we drove to Hill City.

They were supposed

to take things related to Sue,

but they took everything.

They went through

all of our offices,

all of our desks,

all of our mail trays,

taking mail opened, unopened.

Somebody called me

and said, "The FBI's

got crime scene tape

around the Institute,

and they're taking Sue."

I hung up the phone, and I went

as fast as I could

down to the Institute.

I don't know

how many agents they had,

30-some people or whatever.

It was just insane.

I didn't even think about it.

I grabbed the tape

and go under it.

I just went to the specimen.

That was my concern.

I could just see these idiots,

you know, just try

to pack up my dinosaur

and take it away and ruin it.

How dare they?

How dare these people do this?

Unconscionable. I can't imagine

somebody being able to do this

here in the United States of

America, in a free country.

In order to ensure

that this dinosaur

could be carefully packed up,

we helped.

It was pretty clear

that they didn't know

what they were doing.

These people

didn't know anything.

I mean, most of these guys

hardly go out

in the field at all.

What do they know

about preparing a fossil

or packing it or anything?

The Larsons were trying to do

a little bit of negotiating.

"Put Sue under lock and key

at our place to prevent damage."

I said to Kevin Schieffer,

"You just tell me,

and that fossil

won't go anywhere.

It's not like it's going to

disappear in a briefcase."

That request was denied.

It is clearly a violation

under the Antiquities Act

to remove antiquities

from United States lands

without the permission

of the United States.

The federal government doesn't

show up with the National Guard

and an Assistant...

or pardon me...

an Acting United States

Attorney in pancake makeup...

...with the intention

of working things out

somewhere down the road.

After we got over

the initial shock, those of us

who were packing the dinosaur

kind of went

into our packing mode,

but towards the end of the day,

it became obvious that something

was going on with the town.

People around town noticed.

They noticed all the cop cars.

They noticed the police tape.

All of a sudden,

there were people with signs

out in front of our building

It was clear that people

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