Arthur Lakes

Infobox_Scientist
name = Arthur Lakes


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birth_date = 1844
birth_place = Somerset, England
death_date = 1917
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field = Geology
Art
work_institution = Colorado School of Mines
alma_mater = The Queen's College, Oxford
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footnotes = cite web | url = http://oia.mines.edu/tour/lakes/01.htm | title = Campus Tour: Arthur Lakes Library | format = HTML | publisher = Colorado School of Mines Office of Institutional Advancement | accessdate = 2007-11-25

Arthur Lakes (1844-1917) was a notable geologist, artist, writer, teacher and minister. He captured much of his geological and palaeontological field work in sketches and watercolours.

He was a part-time professor at what later became the Colorado School of Mines. Having sent a fossilized vertebra specimen (from the Morrison Formation of Dakota, U.S.) to Othniel Charles Marsh, in 1877, he was then employed by Marsh to seek other discoveries, in the so-called Bone Wars. He went on to unearth fossilized remains of Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus and Allosaurus.

Although he was employed by Marsh, Lakes was visited by Marsh's "Bone War" opponent Edward Drinker Cope, while working at Como Bluff. Although it was the last thing he intended, Lakes was the cause of increased animosity between Cope and Marsh, by co-operating with both. Lakes made the original discovery of the fossils in the "" formation in Dinosaur Ridge near Morrison, Colorado. Lakes also drilled several test oil wells in the Golden and Morrison area, however they were not successful producing wells.

During this time, he also worked as a teacher (at what is now the Colorado School of Mines) and as a clergyman. When he retired from fossil hunting, he went on to work for the U.S. Geological Survey and was a lifelong productive writer.

There is a library named after him, at the Colorado School of Mines.

References

*Mark Jaffe. "The Guilded Dinosaur: THE FOSSIL WAR BETWEEN E.D. COPE AND O.C. MARSH AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN SCIENCE." New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group/Random House, 1999.