DINOSAURS MAY RETURN...TO BOLLINGER COUNTY!

Dinosaurs in Marble Hill? It's an intriguing notion that could pay big dividends for Bollinger County's county seat. A dinosaur expert from Arnold has been digging near Glen Allen and has discovered the bones of a duck-billed dinosaur and the teeth of a tyrannosaurus. Self-taught paleontologist Guy Darrough says the Bollinger County dig is the only known dinosaur site in the Midwest.

That fact may help Darrough in his dream of turning the old Mayfield College in Marble Hill into a museum of natural history. While a few bones won't fill an entire museum, Darrough has other talents that may help. He builds realistic, fiberglass dinosaur models for museum exhibits. He operates Lost World Studios and showcases some of his work on the Internet. In addition to dinosaur fossils and the models, Darrough hopes the museum could house a working laboratory and showcase other artifacts.

The 76-year-old college building once served as the art and science building for Will Mayfield College, a Baptist high school and two-year college that closed its doors in 1934. The three-story structure is owned by El Nathan Home Inc., which operates a retirement home on the property. The land was once owned by the Chronister family, and dinosaur bones were first unearthed accidentally in 1942 when a well was dug. The bones ended up in the Smithsonian.

Darrough has been digging at the site for nine years, but the real finds have come in recent years. Last year he established the Missouri Ozark Dinosaur Project Inc., a not-for-profit organization to systematically excavate the site.

But what would it take for this vision to become reality? First off, the aging building would need to be renovated. But civic leaders have suggested volunteer labor could help lower the cost. It would not only save money, but it could help build community support of the project as neighbors worked side by side.

Darrough's vision may help spur the project to reality. He thinks big. He envisions more than a dinosaur museum, although he said bones and perhaps a whole skeleton could figure prominently in the operation along with a large display of life-size dinosaur models. He would like to show the history of life on Earth, and he has a wealth of fossils and artifacts he'd like to display. His fossil collection includes snails from the Ozarks dating back 450 million to 500 million years.

Darrough envisions a Smithsonian of the Ozarks. That would certainly be a tourism drawn for the entire region.