Glass  Mountain  Dinosaur.

There is a place called Glass Mountain in Oklahoma. It is not really a mountain, but rather, a mesa. This place is brimming with sheets of mica, a glasslike mineral, hence its name. My momma was a huge rock hound, and I have, in my possession, several of her artifacts she found during her various rock hunting expeditions. Glass Mountain is also known for arrowheads, and momma had read in the paper, or heard from someone somewhere, that it was fantastic for that, so she loaded all of us kids up and away we went to go arrowhead hunting.

We arrived in this desolate scrub brush semi desert, and it was hot, I mean unquenchable thirst hot. We found a lot of Indian paint pot, a black stone with ochre dust in it. It was used by Native Americans to create paint, hence its name. There was mica everywhere but we didn’t find one arrowhead.  We searched and searched and got nothing but sunburned. It was too hot for even rattlesnakes luckily.

I told her about how we used to find arrowheads at Waller Jr. High School after it rained and momma said we would come back after it rained, so we drove back home. A few days later a gully wash rain came and momma once again loaded us for Glass Mountain. We hunted futilely for arrowheads and once again came up empty. Looking around, I remember thinking that this was not a good place for arrowheads because it was so sparse of wildlife. So momma takes us ‘exploring” as she called it. That was when we just drove on back roads looking for wildlife, or maybe an old ruin or anything. She had found an old Franklin stove in farmhouse once. It was apparently an abandoned old house from the dustbowl days. I think my father still has the stove in his house.

So, as we were driving around in this desolate place, we stopped to do a little more relic hunting. I walked down the road and lo and behold! In the ditch, on the opposite wall, facing me is this huge skeleton. I called momma and she came a running. This thing was about 8 feet tall at the top of its curved spine, it had 4 legs and a long neck. Momma was so excited I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She stood back and pronounced “Dinosaur! We have found a dinosaur! We’re rich!” I looked at it too, and it looked like a comptosaurus, I was certain of it.

Momma took a bone from it and swore us to secrecy. We weren’t to tell a soul or she would give us a whipping. When I asked her how we were going to make money off it- she told me she would sell it to a museum or university, but first she had to find out what type of dinosaur it was…she was very excited about it all. I was too, imagining me becoming a celebrity, I mean I found it-right?

So momma takes this bone to Phillips University in order to get it analyzed. Of course, Phillips isn’t going to do it for free. They ask $500.00 for the initial retainer in order to begin identifying the bone. Momma, never tells them that she thinks it is a dinosaur bone. She shushes me when I begin to speak and very business- like asks if they will accept a credit card. She is delighted when the man agrees, and momma hands over this credit card like she was shrugging off $500.00. Now listen dear reader, in 1968, $500.00 is a lot of money…especially with 4 children; I don’t think my youngest sister was born yet. Add that to the fact we were living on Air Force E-5 pay too. So we drive home and momma is once again explaining to me the dire necessity of not telling anyone about our dinosaur.

So, a few days later, maybe a week or so, I am awakened by a loud fight between momma and my dad. Evidently, looking back on it now, dad must’ve find out that she gave $500.00 to the university which I am certain must’ve caused him to blow a blood vessel in his head. He was a miser you see, and momma was an impulse buyer…a match made in heaven.

Once he had just paid off a credit card at Sears and went to buy some shotgun shells and the card was declined. Certain it was a mistake, and after getting feisty with the sales clerk, he went back upstairs and stood in line for customer service. He was worked up into a lather and when he got to the representative, he was giving it to them good about not releasing the card. Then it was discovered that mere minutes after the card was paid in full, my momma had run it to the limit again. It turned out that right after she saw him walk away from the counter when he paid it off, she gave the cashier the go ahead to ring up new school clothes we all needed. She had no idea he was going to try and use the card so fast. So, whilst he was buying shotgun shells. She got her things bagged up and put them in car and waited for him. When he realized what happened, he was incredulous and beat feet to the car to discover momma there powdering her nose with all these bags in the car! …anyway back to the dinosaur story….

It took the university forever to identify our dinosaur and we made several trips back there to Glass Mountian. Momma and us kids kept putting bushes over it so nobody would discover our claim. The days seemed to drag on and on and the doldrums finally came and I was sure the university had stole her money. She kept calling and calling, to no avail. Finally, the day came when the bone was identified and the man said a historian was very much interested in our find! Momma jumped up, put on her best dress, and loaded us kids in the VW van and off we went. She was driving like Mario Andrussi, which she always did anyway, but this time she was driving as if her life depended on it.  She kept telling me all the stuff she was going to buy us kids, and how we would never have to worry about anything expensive ever again.

We go into the university, and there sits this man with round spectacles on and the other man that momma had given the money to. I was there and although the conversation may have been worded slightly different, I still remember the gist of it “Mrs. Bagby! So delighted to see you again! May I introduce Ingelbert Jones? He is an archival historian on staff here at the University and is very interested in your find.” I looked at momma and I swear that there was $$ in her eyes as she took her seat and very non-chalantly asked about it. “So what kind of dinosaur bone is it?” she asked. 

“Dinosaur?!” he replied “Mrs. Bagby, dinosaur bones are all fossilized and rock. This bone you brought us was still calcified. It wasn’t a dinosaur bone! My! My!… the paleontologists have identified it as Dromedus  Camellus, better known as Arabian single humped camel.” My mother, undaunted, was still sticking to her interpretation replying ‘Well…let me tell you something there mister professor…I might be from Florida, but, even I know that camels don’t live  in America, especially in a remote part of Oklahoma, so you just tell your highly educated paleontologists that they got it wrong!” Then Ingelburt chimed in “Well Mrs. Bagby..actually they did, and that is why I am interested in your find. You see, the US Army brought them in during the Indian War days. They were attempting to use them, vice horses, since they were so much better adapted to deserts. Some of them escaped and we think you have found the remains of one of them. Was this particular find near Okeene Oklahoma?” Well I saw the wind go out of momma’s sails and she gulped and croaked “Yes…near Glass Mountain”. Well that sealed the deal. In a desperation to salvage anything left of her dream, momma asked “Is it worth anything monetarily?”  Ingleburt replied “I’m afraid not, however I will give you $20.00 for directions so I can complete the excavation and add to my research.”  Momma took the check, gave up the directions to “our dinosaur” and away we went.

In retrospect, she thought she lost $480.00 that day, but she gave her children a maternal lesson in counting your chickens before they hatch, and me a good lesson in how to gracefully bow out of a losing position. She walked out of there with her head held high, chin up and dragging us children behind her. It wasn’t until she got us all in the van that she silently wept with tears coming down her chin. How could she know that she had participated in one our family’s most laughed about situations?  She went to heaven in 2006, and now all we have left is our memories with an extraordinary woman and mother. Happy Mother’s day to all you mothers that read this…maybe today is a day in your life that your children will cherish . Keep a journal…it is much easier.