Jefferson's Ground Sloth
Formerly, a famous fossil discovery — that of Thomas Jefferson's giant ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) — had been assumed to have come originally from Organ Cave. Jefferson never visited the area, but received the fossil from a local friend in 1796. In the early 20th century, a local man, Andrew Price of Marlinton, decided that the fossil had come from Organ Cave and popularized his theory. In 1995, however, Smithsonian paleontologist Frederick Grady proposed that Haynes Cave in nearby Monroe County was the true source. (His reasons had to do with historical land-ownership records.) The proprietors of Organ Cave, however, continue to insist on their property as the origin of the fossil in their interpretative exhibits and tour guide presentations.
Read more about this topic: Organ Cave
Famous quotes containing the words jefferson, ground and/or sloth:
“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The future is just as much a condition of the present as is the past. “What shall be and must be is the ground of that which is.””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“You need not be proud of me.... I’m only being active till you can be again—it isn’t such a great desire on my part to serve the world and I’ll fall back into habits of sloth quite easily!”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)