David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood: Pioneer Geologists in Indiana and Illinois
David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood: Pioneer Geologists in Indiana and Illinois Clark Kimberling* In 1993 America’s highest-grossing concert act popularized a song entitled “Dire Wolf,”’ and a leading children’s television series was using dire wolves as bad guys.2Elsewhere, players of Dungeons and Dragons empathized with the species. Although these modern- day dire wolves are mythical and fantastic, a few millennia ago real ones roamed both American continent^.^ They hunted other ani- mals, slew them with their powerful jaws, and ate them. In 1854 Francis A. Linck of Evansville, Indiana, found a fossilized jawbone of what was later identified as the first known dire wolf and thus established a new species. Tracing the movement of this fossil from Evansville to New Harmony, Indiana, then to Philadelphia opens up an interesting view of the study of geology in the mid-nine- teenth-century Middle West and of two geologists living in New Harmony in 1854: David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood. Although the story of Francis A. Linck and his discovery can be viewed as a kind of introductory note to the Owen-Norwood account, it is in itself a fascinating tale. Linck’s father, also Francis, was a native of Wurttemburg, Germany, who migrated to Vander- *Clark Kimberling is professor of mathematics, University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana. For abundant and enthusiastic help, he wishes to thank Faye Mark, archivist, Indiana University, Bloomington; Ronald L. Richards, curator of paleobiology and chief curator of natural history, Indiana State Museum, Indi- anapolis; Josephine M. Elliott of The Workingmen’s Institute, New Harmony, Indi- ana; Rodney D.
[Show full text]