Prehistoric whale may serve as focal point for new Caroline visitor's center

By COREY BYERS

Date published: 4/27/2008

Caroline Economic Development Director Gary Wilson wants to make a full-scale reproduction of a prehistoric whale found in Carmel Church the focal point of the county's new visitors center come August.

The arrival of the 28-foot reproduction, however, hinges on raising $125,000 in donations. Wilson is working to solicit funds from corporations in Caroline to make the display a reality.

He wants the lifelike skeleton to be the main draw for a mini-exhibit on the wealth of fossils found in Caroline. Many of them date back 14 million years--when the area was a seabed.

"I think if you're a traveler and you're driving along, you'll see it and say 'Wow! What is that?'" Wilson says of the whale.

Wilson believes it could help draw more than 250,000 visitors to the center each year. That's close to 700 people for each day it's open.

He's also pitching it as a good way for businesses to cash in on the traffic. Contributors' names will go on a plaque at the center, be included on brochures and get a listing on a county Web site.

"The faster we get [donations], the quicker we can get the whale in," he said Friday.

While there is no hard deadline for donations, Wilson said the county is off to a good start. So far, he said, the project has received $25,000 from Caroline landowners Richard and Kathy Thompson.

Alton Dooley, assistant curator of paleontology for the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, said the whale bones were unearthed in Carmel Church in 1991. Exploration has continued at the former commercial quarry operated by Martin Marietta Aggregates since, producing fossils of other land and sea creatures, he said.

Dooley and his staff have identified 50 different species at the quarry, including whales, sharks, dolphins, marine crocodiles, stingrays, three-toed horses, tapirs and animals similar to deer.

Last month, his team unearthed camel fossils. He said thousands of other specimens from the Miocene epoch were found, too, but have yet to be identified.

And that's just from an area of about 3,000 square feet--roughly the size of a four-bedroom house.

"Probably something like two-thirds of land animals from this time period [discovered in] Virginia are from this site," Dooley said.

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Date published: 4/27/2008