Abstract

After collecting fossils throughout the western United States, Sternberg moved into western Canada. There he developed the spectacular Upper Cretaceous dinosaur fossil beds in eastern Alberta. He helped found the Calgary Zoo, which is famous for its dinosaur exhibits, and his two younger sons remained permanently in Canada. Oldest son, George F., returned to Kansas, where he was appointed curator of museums at Fort Hays State University in 1933. The FHSU student geology club and the museum are both named in honor of the Sternberg family.

C.H. Sternberg spent the first 15 years of his life near Cooperstown, New York, in the Susquehanna River valley. His father, Rev. Dr. Levi Sternberg, was principal at Hartwick Seminary. Throughout his career Sternberg had strong religious convictions. He had an early love for nature, but at age 10 he fell and dislocated his left fibula. He never fully recovered from this injury and limped for the rest of his life. In 1865 the family moved to Albion, Iowa, where his father had a new teaching position. Two years later Charles H. and his twin brother moved to central Kansas to work on an older brother's ranch. The ranch was located in Ellsworth County, at the western terminus of the Union Pacific railroad, where buffalo herds roamed freely.

At age 17, Sternberg decided to devote his life to the study of fossils and earth history. He wanted to bring the wonders of God's creation to light scientifically through fossils. He made a large collection of fossil leaves from the Dakota Formation of the local area. In 1870 he sent specimens to the Smithsonian for identification, and in 1872 he met Leo Lesquereux, famous paleobotanist, who came to collect in the vicinity. Lesquereux was so impressed by Sternberg, that he named a new fossil plant for him--Protophyllum sternbergii. Sternberg continued to work with Dakota material off and on until 1897. In 1875-76, he studied at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), but apparently without completing a degree. In 1880 he married Anna Reynolds, and they had three sons.

Sternberg met Cope in Omaha in 1876, and they journeyed by railroad to Montana, where Custer's army had just been destroyed by Sioux Indians. Cope wanted to collect fossils anyway in the badlands of the Missouri and Judith rivers. Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale yielded dinosaurs and giant sea tortoises, and the first horned dinosaurs were collected. Sternberg spent the following winter in Philadelphia with Cope.

In 1877 Sternberg was back in Kansas again to collect from the chalk beds. He discovered rich Tertiary fossil beds of the Ogallala in northwestern Kansas. He collected for both Cope and later Marsh--elephants, turtles, three-toed horse, rhinoceras, etc. Many of these specimens came from the famous "Sternberg quarry" in Phillips County. In August 1877, he returned to his family in Ellsworth County long enough to say goodbye and head out to Oregon.

Sternberg spent the next couple of years collecting Tertiary fossils for Cope. Human artifacts at one site initially were thought to be evidence for "Pliocene Man," but Sternberg later decided the old fossils had been mixed with younger artifacts. He collected mostly fossil mammals from volcanoclastic strata, including oreodont, rhinoceras, rodents, saber-toothed tiger, flamingo, etc. In 1878 an Indian war broke out, which forced Sternberg to hide his fossils and flee the area. A fossil camel from Washington was named for him by Cope, Paratylopus sternbergi.

In 1882, Sternberg turned his attention to the Permian red beds of Texas, where he collected for the Museum of Comparative Anatomy (founded by Agassiz) at Harvard University. This was a desolate, harsh situation without good water. He spent six field seasons, at first without much success. Eventually he found early reptiles and amphibians, including Eyrops and Dimetrodon (early sail-backed reptile). He also conducted more work for Cope in 1895 and 1897. He collected excellent specimens of fin-backed dinosaurs and giant lizards. Cope died in 1897 while Sternberg was in the field. Sternberg considered his work for Cope to have been his greatest scientific contribution.

Having collected in most of the western United States, the Sternbergs moved into the badlands of eastern Alberta, Canada in 1912. Dinosaurs of the Drumheller region produced some of the best late Cretaceous specimens ever found. The Sternbergs participated in founding of the Calgary Zoo, which includes world-famous dinosaur exhibits. The two younger sons eventually remained in Canada, where they worked at national and provincial museums.

Memorial plaque for the founders of the Calgary Zoo, Alberta, Canada. Click on the small image to see a larger (123 kb) version. Photo date 8/85, © J.S. Aber.

George F., the eldest son, decided to stay in Kansas, where he was appointed curator of museums in 1933 for what is now Fort Hays State University. He served in this position until 1955. The Sternberg Museum at FHSU is particularly well known for its fossils from the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas. Its most famous single fossil is the "fish within a fish." The FHSU student geology club and the museum are both named in honor of the Sternberg family.

The senior Sternberg's position on the significance of fossils was clear--fossils are testiments to God's wonder, and scientific study of fossils was man's attempt to understand better the work of God in creating the Earth. His point of view was expounded in poetic style in a slim volume titled A story of the past (Sternberg 1917).

From childhood's days I've longed to know
The wonders of the past;
And as I into manhood grow,
I choose my work at last.

I then resolved that, come what may,
I'd give my brawn and brain
From manhood till I'm old and grey,
To lengthen out the chain

Of life upon the earth we tread
Since, early dawn of life.
Now, I think that I've led
To enter this great strife. (p. 1)

I here profess my strong belief
In my revealéd Lord;
I've found Him in the rocky leaf,
And in his inspired word.

For forty years I've lived with God,
Oft from the haunts of men.
I've thought upon His wonderous word
And scenes beyond our ken.

I've found the crust of our old earth
A might funeral urn
Where countless forms of life had birth;
Then others took their turn

And left in sepulchers of stone
The dead He buried there.
But they are not dry bones alone;
I see them as they were

When plants and creatures waged the war
That from the first they wrought
For daily bread, or offspring care,
Or love's sweet battles fought. (p. 4)

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