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For about half the travelers who stop in, Fossil Butte National Monument is merely a rest area on a lonely stretch of U.S. Highway 30 about 9 miles west of Kemmerer. Many make a beeline to the restrooms and are stunned to discover a Smithsonian-quality museum packed with thousands of stone slabs embedded with fossilized creatures from the Eocene.

More than 1 million fossils have been retrieved in the surrounding area, owing their preservation to an ancient, and very large, freshwater lake.

The most abundant fossil found at Fossil Butte National Monument is Eocene animal poop. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)

In fact, the national monument, dubbed “America’s Aquarium in Stone,” has so many fossil artifacts that they adorn the restroom walls. The visitor’s center aims to show as many different species as possible, according to staff members. From fish (there are 27 different species) to birds (40) to snakes, bats, plants and insects of all varieties, there are thousands of ancient specimens.

There are 27 different species of fossilized fish on display at Fossil Butte National Monument. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)

“What you’re seeing here is the diversity, not abundance,” Fossil Butte National Park Museum Curator Arvid Aase said, adding that the abundance of fossils is too overwhelming to fit into the visitor’s center.

If you’ve been to Fossil Butte before, but it’s been a while, you’ll find many new displays as well as vastly improved interpretive trails that wind through a sea of sagebrush and aspen groves.

Dustin Bleizeffer covers energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for 26 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily covering the energy industry in...

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