[Rockhounds] FRANK passing of a rockhound

[rocknlight at aol.com]

Frank

Thank you for informing us all of Ernie's passing -

My brother and I visited Ernie about?8 or 9?years ago and purchased a bunch of bone.

He also gave us a BIG?treat and?took us into one of his back rooms and showed us 2 HUGE, intact?dino bones -

As I remember and my Video tape?shows,?the 2?bones?looked like dog chew?bones, but were about 5? feet in length and about 12 + inches thick. Probably weighed in at over 1,000 pounds each

He said?he wanted about $25,000 each, but would not sell them anyway...... Out of my price range for sure..

Ernie and his Australian helper guy, can't remember his name,?talked with my brother and I?for a few hours, while we looked at all his dino bone rough and slabs.

In the last few minutes of our visit, Ernie had my Brother Paul toss a rock for Ernie's dog, Blue.... 

Blue gladly?fetched the rock?a few times and then Ernie told my brother to toss the rock REALLY FAR !? He did and Blue looked at how far the rock went and then Blue?promptly turned around and quickly?attacked my brothers foot, with a terrible lightning fast vengeance !!

Ernie seemed to have?a strange sense of humor sometimes, as he told us all new comers fall for?the rock tossing trick and get they all?get bit by old Blue, for tossing the rock too far...

Not very funny really, as my brother limped on that foot for the next 4 days... Luckily he had leather-like boots on and no permanent damage was done.

Ernie's helper guy, from Australia I think ??was not so lucky and showed us many?6 inch long bite marks on the back of his leg, as Blue got pissed off at him for something ?? CRAZY ?

I remember running into a well known?Petrified Wood dealer in Quartzite, his name eludes me now?and he told that he adopted one of Blues puppies and after some time, Blues son or daughter dog ??got into too much trouble, attacking things and he was then sadly?forced to put the dog down - True story -

Blue was one rough and?tough cookie, kind of like Ernie, but in a good way overall...

Ernie will be missed?!!?

I Do not Know if Blue is still alive, probably not... So Blue?and Ernie are now together again, in rockhound Heaven.

Thank you for the nice memories of that day my Brother and I?had with Ernie Shirley.

Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: cycadwood at aol.com
To: PetrifiedWood at egroups.com; rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
Sent: Mon, 12 May 2008 6:59 am
Subject: [Rockhounds] passing of a rockhound



Ernie Shirley of Hanksville, Utah passed away on May 10. He was the owner of the 
big rock shop in Hanksville and will be missed. I saw him in March and he was 
doing all right for being 89 years old. I went to see him again last week and 
was told he was in the hospital but was expected back in a few days. He was a 
fine man with a tremendous amount of knowledge about the petrified wood and 
dinosaur bone of southern Utah. May he rest in Peace.

Sadly,

Frank

Frank Daniels Minerals & Fossils
Grand Junction, Colorado
www.FrankDanielsMinerals.com



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