Good Times in the Badlands

Within these pages are the recollections of more than a half-century of fossil collecting in the American West with Morris F. Skinner, Frick Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, New York, N.Y. This book about Morris and Marie Skinner and their associates is not a "how to" book, nor is it a scientific thesis. You can read about the science of paleontology in dozens of textbooks and dissertations. Expeditions to collect fossils with Morris were serious scientific endeavors and rife with physical hardships. Nonetheless, joyful enthusiasm and good humor filled each day. This book paints a picture of an era that is forever gone. It is freewheeling, poetic, humorous and nostalgic. Although fossil collecting is rooted in the science of Paleontology, Good Times in the Badlands focuses on the effervescence or spirit of the profession instead.

Raleigh Emry grew up on a ranch along the Niobrara River northeast of Ainsworth, Nebraska. He was an assistant to Morris Skinner, of the American Museum of Natural History, while attending high school and college in the '60s. Mr. Emry is a 1966 graduate of Colorado State University and a retired United States Air Force officer.