Documents and Other Materials Related to the Discovery, Disposition and Use of Grizzly Bear Remains Found in Bare Bonz Cave in 1981

Hentges, Robert; Haszier, Charles; Clary, Benton; Clark, Dave; Kuehn, Daniel

Note: Access to this reference was changed from Public to Restricted on 2026-02-25 due to inadvertent release of sensitive information. WT. Please contact reference editor for access. This file was created by the BLM and transferred to the NPS when the land was transferred the NPS. Therefore, while it was not created for the NPS, NPS has curatorial responsibility for this record. Various materials related to the discovery, disposition and use of grizzly bear remains found in Bare Bonz Cave in 1981. This archive file folder contains various materials all related to the discovery, disposition and use of grizzly bear remains found in Bare Bonz Cave (on BLM as it was pre-expansion of CRMO) in 1981. Includes: an original note card with discovery information (discoverers, date, location information), pictures (and negatives) of the bones in situ, pictures (and negatives) of the cave entrance, a hand drawn cave map, hand written notes, memos relating to transfer of the bones from the BLM to NPS, transfer of property documents, memos about the intended use of the bones (visitor center display), memos about the display design, memos about loan of grizzly bear photographs (and negatives) from Yellowstone National Park for use in the display. Eventual items transfered to NPS consisted of a grizzly bear skull and femur, Museum catalog number(s) 1330 -1331. One of the memos in this file folder (Hentges, Sep 8, 1981) talks about a plan that would have included desert bighorn sheep and bison as part of the exhibit. Lack of verification as to their past presence on the monument was listed as one of the reasons this was abondoned. Bison (bison bison) and bighorn (Ovis canadensis) were subsequently verified from remians collected in 1982 and 1992 (see Accession file 109). Past presence of the subspecies desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) on CRMO is not verified, however, it is possible that the desert bighorn could have ranged this far north during the Pleistocene (Melton in Hentges 1981).