| OCR Text |
Show FRANK ASAHEL BECKWITH BECKWITH PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, DELTA CITY LIBRARY races made by its shorelines are visible on surrounding mountains. Beckwith first studied and photographed the Pahvant Butte, a volcanic crater built up from the bottom of the lake. He then began to study the House Mountains, west of Delta, where he found his first fossil tr ilobites. Beckwith later found more trilobites in the Wheeler Amphitheatre, and west through Marjum Pass and Wahwah Valley. Frank Beckwith speaking at Curious to learn more about the fine speci- the dedicatory cermony of a mens he was finding everywhere, Beckwith monument at Mountain Meadows ordered every available book on the subject. on September 10, 1932, the He had an impressively large collection of seventy-fifth anniversary of the various types of fossils, including microscopic tragic massacre. trilobites no larger than a flyspeck. Over the years, Beckwith sent thousands of his collected trilobites to the Smithsonian Institution, but one fossil in particular stood out over the others. Encouraged by Kelly, Beckwith sent the Smithsonian a trilobitesque fossil that had been given to him by Emory John, a farmer in Clear Lake, Utah. The fossil, as it turned out, was actually a new genus of merostome, and was the first one ever found in Millard County. Experts at the Smithsonian named the fossil Beckwithia typa, and paleontologist Charles Elmer Resser wrote about it in a professional publication.60 Beckwith’s daughter Athena reported that having the fossil named after him was the greatest honor that had ever come to her father, and that he would rather have had the write-up about the fossils than a thousand dollars.61 Another unique feature on the specimen was named after Emory John. Along with petroglyphs and trilobites, Frank Beckwith was known for discovering and naming various historic landmarks in the area. In 1926, Beckwith and Mormon Bishop Joseph Damron were credited with discovering the resemblance of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith in a volcanic rock. The formation is known today by various names, such as the 60 Charles Elmer Resser, “A new Middle Cambrian Merostome Crustacean,” Proceedings U.S. National Museum, Vol. 79, ART.33 68272-31. A sampling of the accession records from the Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum record: April 21, 1927, twenty-seven specimens of trilobites from the Middle Cambrian of Utah; July 6, nineteen hundred specimens of Middle Cambrian trilobites of Antelope Springs, Utah and forty slabs containing Cambrian and Ordovician fossils, from Utah; January 5, 1928, two hundred specimens of Cambrian trilobites and two slabs of Ordovician fossils from Nevada. 61 Hunsaker, “A History of the Millard County Chronicle,” 66-67. 183 |
