Lee Rex Fossil Arrives Wednesday, Hopefully [AUDIO]

The scheduled transfer of a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil from the field to Casper College has been moved up to today (Wednesday). Deanna Schaff, director of the Tate Geological Museum, says a scheduling bump means the massive chunk of rock where most of the fossil is contained will be loaded onto a flatbed and, may arrive at the college (this) Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Tentative arrival time:

"The truck driver told me between 4 and 5 is his best guess to get it back here to the college. It will come to the Career Studies Building, which is just south of the Tate Museum because that's, one of those bays, is what we're going to be using for our temporary prep lab."

So why the change to two days earlier than scheduled?

Moved up two days:

"We moved it up because Black Hills Trucking has a huge project in North Dakota that they needed to take their truck and crane and everything up there, and if they didn't do it Wednesday, they would have to wait two weeks until they were done with this other project before they could do it, so we were close enough in the field that we thought we could have it ready."

Ms. Schaff has invited the public to watch the arrival of Lee Rex, which will involve hoisting the massive rock and metal superstructure onto a low-slung trailer for its home in an improvised prep lab.

People invited to welcome Lee Rex:

"It is open to the public if people would like to come and watch. I am going to open up another bay out there. They store the fire truck in it normally; we are going to move that out and I'm going to have some drinks and some chairs so people do not have to sit out in the sun. And they're welcome to come, just be warned that they may come and have to wait."

And, cautions Schaff, this is all dependent on the weather. If rain makes the roads muddy, the move may not happen. For more information, call Deanna Schaff at 268-2077.