In July 1937 men working in a quarry in Adams County found something spectacular - fossilized dinosaur footprints.
From the Aug. 3, 1937 Evening News: "The dinosaur footprints uncovered by workmen last week in Trostle's Quarry, near York Springs, were described today as the 'finest collection ever found in Pennsylvania' by Arthur B. Cleaves, state paleontologist and junior geologist, who examined them yesterday with George H. Ashley, state geologist."
The men were working in the quarry to acquire stone for construction of bridges on the Gettysburg battlefield.
On July 30, 1937, The Evening News reported that workers had found eight footprints in addition to two dozen slabs of stone with prints on them that were previously found.
"The workmen, who reach the rocks by descending a steep cliff on ropes, have found all of the imprints in rock in the same strata. They expected to find more footprints when they resume their work this afternoon. [J.L. Thomas, superintendent of the Highway Engineering and Construction company] said they will complete their work at the quarry in about a week.
Late today the men planned to remove a ledge about 10 feet long and six feet wide in which four footprints were embedded. Superintendent Thomas was doubtful, however, whether the entire slab of rock could be moved without cracking it. It is expected that experts from the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University will come here in the near future to examine the specimens. Mrs. Gertrude B. Fuller, assistant director of the State Museum, Harrisburg, said this morning that her office plans to send representatives to the quarry within a day or so to take photographs of the findings and to see if a slab can be obtained for display purposes in the museum.
Two slabs of stone containing dinosaur footprints for some time have been on display in the State Museum, Mrs. Fuller said this morning. They were found one mile east of Yocumtown, York County, and are not nearly so large as those found near York Springs.
Thomas announced today that the slabs bearing numerous types of impressions will be placed on exhibition within several days in the Gettysburg National Military Park office in the post office building here.
When the first of the footprints were discovered by Elmer R. Haile Jr. of Towson, Md., an engineer employed by the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture, a letter was written to the National Museum in Washington inviting authorities to inspect the rocks and to identify the impressions. It is believed experts will be sent by the museum."
The discovery was the second time dinosaur tracks had been found. In 1933, according to a story in The Evening News, tracks were found near Yocumtown in York County.
"All but one of the dinosaur tracks are gone from the Yocumtown district, York County. They had been there for 180,000,000 years according to George H. Ashley, state geologist, who went out yesterday [June 30] to check them over, but the fossilized traces of the prehistoric monsters - with a single exception - that were known to have been there several months ago are either lost, strayed, stolen or shattered by dynamite used on a road construction project.
Doctor Ashley is of the opinion that several of the missing footprints of the dinosaur, more less familiarly known as 'Podokesaurus Holyokensis Talbot'are now in the possession of souvenir hunters who snitched them from their resting places for a couple of million centuries.
The moulded footprint that remains intact is on the property of P.B. Smith, professor of English at the William Penn Senior High School, who has a summer home near the old Wentz Mill which was built in 1808. Smith said many persons made inquiry during the last several months as to the exact location of the dinosaur foot tracks, and it is believed the obscure location of the surviving print, which is difficult to access, saved it from the hands of pilferers.
The sizes of the members of the branch of the dinosaur family that once inhabited the vicinity of Yocumtown ranged from four to 40 feet, according to Ashley. He said the specimen that left its footmarks on the Smith property was about 4 feet long and 20 inches high. The reptile was formed somewhat according to the specifications of a kangaroo.
With Ashley on the inspection trip were John H. Troup, 2138 N. Third St., a native of York County, who has on many occasions accompanied the state geologist on trips of investigation; John W. Troup; and a reporter and photographer of The Evening News. The cameraman took several good pictures of the remaining footprint."