Footsteps Roy Chapman Andrews

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS

celebrating the centennial of the Central Asiatic Expeditions

by J. KELLY CLUER THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL

GANDAN MONASTERY RED MESA FLAMING CLIFFS DALANZADGAD

A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2017, J. KELLY CLUER IS AN EXPLORATION GEOLOGIST BASED IN MAGADAN, IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST. PREVIOUSLY, HE WAS BASED IN ULAANBAATAR FOR 15 YEARS, WHERE HE AND HIS TEAM MEMBERS WERE AWARDED THE HONORED GEOLOGIST OF MONGOLIA MEDAL FOR PUTTING THE BOROO GOLD MINE INTO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION, LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR TRANSFORMING THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY. FOR CLUER, REPHOTOGRAPHY PLAYS TO A PHILOSOPHY THAT HARD DATA AND DIRECT OBSERVATIONS ARE CRITICAL TO UNDERSTANDING PAST AND PRESENT EARTH PROCESSES AND CONDITIONS, ENABLING US TO RATIONALLY EMBRACE THE FUTURE.

Like most good ideas in Mongolia, our deci- also combine our love of history, exploration, sion to follow in the footsteps of legendary photography, and Mongolia. paleontologist (and former Explorers Club For the project to succeed, support president) Roy Chapman Andrews and of the AMNH would prove critical. Fellow his Central Asiatic Expeditions (CAE), the Explorers Club members and museum largest land-based scientific expedition ever curators Michael Novacek and Mark Norell, launched, came to life over beers in an Irish the original chasers of Andrews across pub in Ulaanbaatar in 2012. Aware of the the Gobi, were enthusiastic about the idea vast collection of images documenting his and enlisted their exceptional staff at the exploits in the Gobi Desert, we wondered museum’s research library. Several days in just how much that rugged landscape had the library in New York produced a lot of changed in the century since his expeditions high-quality material to work with, and we on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in the early 1920s. Thus, the idea of retracing his journey and rephoto- OPENING SPREAD: THE TWIN TOWERS AT THE FLAMING CLIFFS graphing the places he visited seemed like a (BAYANZAG), IN AN IMAGE TAKEN ON AUGUST 1, 2018. FACING wonderful way to mark the centennial of his PAGE: TOP, AN AMNH IMAGE OF GANDAN MONASTERY TAKEN BY expeditions, which revealed for the first time YVETTE BORUP ANDREWS IN 1918 AND, BELOW, THE TEMPLE undisputable nests of dinosaur eggs, hinting BUILDINGS TODAY, THE MOST NOTABLE CHANGE BEING THE at the avian origins of the creatures. It would PRESENCE OF CARS AND BICYCLES.

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began to realize that if the rephotography digital mapping specialist who has served was successful, it would illustrate dramatic as an advisor for Mongolia’s Administration changes in Mongolia over the past century. of Land Affairs, Geodesy, and Cartography, Mai Reitmeyer took the lead in locating the as well as its Ministry of Construction and images and creating high-resolution scans, Urban Development. Saandar and I have capturing amazing detail that has allowed been collaborating on projects since 1997, critical comparison at a granular scale. when I arranged tours of Nevada gold mines Each field season has yielded more com- when his delegation was visiting the United pelling visual evidence of change, often at a States and helped him network within the in- surprising tempo. In addition to the stunning ternational mining and mapping community. landscapes we have been fortunate to revisit In October 2017, a preliminary mission and the dramatic urban change we have took our five-man team 480 kilometers documented in Ulaanbaatar, an unexpect- west-southwest from Ulaanbaatar to the ed gift has been the valuable insight we Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi Desert, where we have gained into the formidable work of the camped for several nights under cold and three principal photographers who worked windy skies, the desert’s warning of the first with Andrews: James B. Shackelford, a winter blizzards. The weather allowed for two Hollywood cinematographer and AMNH good days to identify subjects, approximate director who made some of the first mo- views, and obtain high-resolution images. In tion pictures of Mongolia; Yvette Borup a few places we even found ourselves stand- Andrews, Roy’s first wife, who produced a ing in exactly the same places the CAE pho- superb collection of scenes of Ulaanbaatar; tographers did, hallowed ground in terms of and Walter Granger, the chief paleontologist early twentieth-century exploration. of the CAE. However, the high winds hampered our work. One blustery morning a grain of sand lodged in my left eye. A flush with water INTO THE FIELD did not remove it. Sand in the eye is not a good thing for a photographer. Always After four years of planning, we finally head- ready to help, Saandar even administered ed into the field in early September 2016, the traditional Mongolian tongue swabbing beginning our mission at Gandan (that moment when you find out who your Monastery, an important Mongolian-Tibetan true friends are), but to no avail. A trip to the sanctuary in Ulaanbaatar, its name meaning nearest hospital was required. A long trip “Great Place of Complete Joy.” During that with eyes closed. All I could think about was initial trip we had little to show for our efforts the wind direction. The big storms always beyond a single rephotograph. However, blow from the west, pushing billowing dust we were able to lay substantial logistical clouds toward China, exactly the opposite groundwork that would enable us to gather wind direction recorded in the Cretaceous far more photographs on subsequent expe- sand dunes underlying the Flaming Cliffs. ditions. These have been carried out in part- How many back-and-forth trips has this nership with Mijidorj Saandar, a GIS and recycled sand grain made, now on its latest bumpy ride back to Dalanzadgad in a hu- man ocular cavity? All ended well but it did THE RUSSIAN HOUSES, CAPTURED BY YVETTE BORUP ANDREWS result in our season being cut short. IN A JUNE 1919 PHOTOGRAPH (TOP), ARE SURROUNDED TODAY A similar opportunity to occupy those BY NEW DEVELOPMENT IN ULAANBAATAR. century-old CAE camera positions

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occurred in 2018. We mounted a longer modern obstacles, some of her views have field expedition that included the Flaming still been possible to recreate, for many Cliffs as a base of operations, and Red of those buildings still stand, tucked into Mesa, a beautiful location 110 kilometers to Ulaanbaatar’s urban fabric. the northwest. We also explored segments A case in point is the so-called “Russian of the Tuul River near Ulaanbaatar and sev- House” on the southwest corner of Tokyo eral views in the city. Street and Peace Avenue, which can be After making camp at Red Mesa and seen in her archival images. From the north- scouting the possible CAE camera loca- east corner of the intersection we made a tions, I was studying one of Granger’s old “nearly perfect” repeat photo. A “perfect” AMNH photos, in which a person is seen photo would have required our setting up walking toward the photographer’s posi- cameras in heavy traffic. tion, when suddenly I looked up and saw We were also able to capture views of our driver and chief mechanic heading my Gandan Monastery, a busy and beautiful way as he surveyed the ground for artifacts place, and the spiritual heart of the nation. from the CAE. I felt teleported in time, We were delighted to observe the presence knowing that Walter or Roy may have once of birds circling about the monastery, just stood where I was standing. as they had in Andrews’ time, while people During our survey of the Red Mesa milled about the temple grounds as they site, we had hoped to find an artifact—a have since its construction in 1809. The totem of sorts—that would physically tie most dramatic change is the presence of the CAE to this location, perhaps an old bicycles and cars. Dodge car part, something stamped “Made One of the striking Gobi Desert camel in America.” This was not to be. We did, caravan views that Shackelford staged at however, find an unusual geologic curiosity: the Flaming Cliffs shows little change in the a perfectly formed “cannonball” that must intervening century. Even some of the rocks have originated in the nearby “Cannonball in the foreground are still present and more Cliffs” formation. It is easy to imagine that or less where they were 92 years ago. Yet during the 1923 campaign, a CAE geologist erosion of the outcrops in the far distance may have brought this beautiful specimen is evident, noticeable in the widening of a back to camp only to leave it behind once small notch near the far center of the archi- they packed up for the season. val image, probably due to wind scour. Such Preliminary results from the Gobi loca- geomorphic features make great alignment tions show dramatic landscape changes, guides for our shots, allowing us to relocate including spectacular cliff retreat in the views with confidence. Flaming Cliffs. We suspect that intense Pinpointing other views proved more winds, along with seasonal freeze/thaw challenging, such as the “Twin Towers,” a action, and possibly even seismic tremors, pair of features in the Flaming Cliffs. Even have conspired to destabilize the cliffs and though we knew we were in about the right eventually topple them over. place, the view was all wrong. Your eyes In the capital city Ulaanbaatar, of course, dart from the earlier photo you have carried change has been so dramatic in the intervening century that capturing the same views Yvette Borup Andrews snapped is A VIEW LOOKING DOWN FROM ATOP THE FLAMING CLIFFS virtually impossible. A gleaming glass tower CAPTURED BY JAMES B. SHACKELFORD IN 1925 (TOP) AND THE is invariably in the way. Yet in spite of these SAME LOCALE AS IT APPEARED IN OCTOBER 2017.

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halfway around the world to the landscape he would make a number of shots toward in front of you, and it does not compute. After different directions. His method is not par- several minutes of walking around trying dif- ticularly obvious, looking at the individual ferent angles, the confusion dissolves when photos. One could easily imagine they were we suddenly realize that a large piece of the shot from completely different locations, a cliff is missing. Measurements revealed that testament to his genius for composition. five meters of the cliff had disappeared. Elsewhere on our journey, we found ex- Five meters per century, five centimeters amples of cliff retreat, evident in Andrews’ per year. That qualifies as rapid change, interesting compositions showing the but the change is punctual, as sudden unstable cliff. The large sandstone blocks whole-column collapse, not grain-by-grain that were just detached from the cliff face in disintegration. 1923 are now slumped downward and fur- Ultimately, we were able to identify the ther reduced by wind and water abrasion. elusive place from which Shackelford made This was one of the most difficult locations one of his most famous images. The “East to find and occupy, since large blocks from Tower,” one of the two towering Flaming recent cliff face movements clutter the Cliffs features that appear in several CAE slope at Andrews’ original position. publications. The East Tower has a crevice The “Ruins,” as they are called, were that Mongolia’s much-prized golden eagles named by the 1963–1971 Polish-Mongolian continue to use as a nesting location. For Paleontological Expedition. These starkly centuries, if not millennia, Mongolians beautiful erosional landforms are remnants have trained the birds to hunt with them of dinosaur-bearing sandstone formations. seasonally before releasing them back into Visitor names and amorous figures are of- the wild, a tradition they still maintain as a ten carved into these soft monuments, no competitive national sport. doubt hastening their disintegration. For Immediately north of the East Tower, instance, there are several photos of very Shackelford occupied another small alcove, narrow and fragile-looking spires in the sheltered from the wind, from which he CAE Flaming Cliffs collection. We surmise shot southward to capture his famed view. that they have simply disappeared, lost to Erosion of cliff features is evident, and close erosion in this rapidly evolving landscape. inspection shows that the blocks lying near The positive aspect of rapid erosion is the cliff base are also smaller and have that new fossils are continually exposed. The moved down the slope in the intervening 92 flat-topped feature is a dark brown clay layer, years, virtually melting into the landscape. an ancient soil horizon representing a land Over time we have learned that surface from Mesozoic time. When you walk Shackelford typically set up his cameras on this surface today, you are occupying the at a fine view position, often occupying the same ground trod by Mesozoic fauna, the high ground, a knife-edge ridge spur, the extinct dinosaurs and mammals sought here very edge of a cliff, or even just a small rise by a century of paleontologists. This is about out on the plain. From one of these set-ups as close to a time machine as one can get. Every rephotograph has been a journey of discovery. By finding the old positions and JAMES B. SHACKELFORD’S 1925 IMAGE OF THE SO-CALLED collecting precise GPS coordinates and EAST TOWER IN WHICH AMNH EXPEDITION MEMBERS ARE SEEN view data, future generations can more eas- TRYING TO REACH THE NEST OF A GOLDEN EAGLE IN A CREVICE ily document change in the century to come, (TOP). THAT SAME LOCALE IN OCTOBER 2017. advancing the time machine forward.