ST. GEORGE — Time is running out for the 200 million-year-old dinosaur tracks discovered on a family farm here nearly a year ago.
The site's owners have been holding off on developing the 2-acre parcel on Riverside Drive, waiting to see what can be done with the scientific find. They'd like to begin working on the property, to be part of Shadow Mountain development in July.
"It's such an incredible asset to the community," state paleontologist James Kirkland said Monday. "If something doesn't happen to protect them, it will be a real tragedy. The community really needs to get behind this."
Kirkland would like to see the tracks, which are actually casts of footprints from at least three different dinosaurs, stay where they are.
"I hate to see them moved. There has already been some degradation of the tracks, no question," he said. "I'm just not sure how much can be done and who's going to come to the table to do it. We need to do something."
The state Legislature appropriated $100,000 this year to be used toward preservation of the dinosaur tracks. A meeting is scheduled Friday in St. George with state Sen. Bill Hickman, St. George and Washington County officials, the family who discovered the tracks, and others who hope to determine how best to spend the money.
"The state wants to play a role but isn't in a position to be the lead provider of funds here," said Hickman. "It will need to be a combination of local, city, county and private sources. The Johnson's will be the final say. We don't want to dictate anything."
Sheldon Johnson, a retired ophthalmologist, discovered the dinosaur tracks while flattening a hill on property he earlier sold to developers. In digging up and flipping over huge chunks of rock, Johnson noticed some strange, raised forms on the underside of some of them.
The footprints, paleontologists say, are from the three-toed Eubrontes and the Dilophosaurus, the first big meat-eater of the Jurassic period. Prints from a Coelophysis, another carnivore, were also found at the site in addition to a long imprint of a dinosaur's tail dragging along the earth.
St. George has spent around $25,000 in support of the tracks by building a fence around the site, contributing work hours, and publishing educational materials, said Kent Perkins, the city's director of parks and recreation.
Johnson constructed a massive roof over the tracks to protect them from the sun and wind. He and his wife, LaVerna, have never charged admission to the site and have been interviewed dozens of times about the discovery. And while the land the tracks sit on now belongs to developers, the tracks belong to the Johnsons.
"We'd like to help preserve the integrity of the site, but the city hasn't wanted to take the lead. We just don't have the resources," Perkins said. "The problem that Hickman will see on Friday is there's no consensus. The major question is, should there be a public facility somewhere down by the site and do we want to preserve the site?"
The city would also like to purchase more of the Johnsons' land next to the nearby Virgin River to expand a walking trail system. Perkins suggests the Johnsons use that money to construct a facility to store the dinosaur tracks.
But the Johnsons say they can't afford to spend that much of their own money on the project. They remain hopeful an interactive children's museum can be constructed near the site with the tracks used as a primary teaching tool.
Who would spearhead such an effort and how it would be funded remain unanswered questions. Friday's meeting may help in resolving some of them, the Johnson's hope.
"When this first started, we didn't know how much interest there would be," LaVerna Johnson said. "We want to create something that is of lasting benefit to not only St. George, but to the entire state."
More than 120,000 people from around the world and every state have come to see the dinosaur footprints, which paleontologists describe as "extraordinarily well preserved."
For more information on the dinosaur tracks or to volunteer at the site, call the Volunteer Center of Washington County at 1-435-674-5757.
E-mail: perkins1@redrock.net