TheHuntressDiana
04-09-2002, 03:48 PM
As far as you know, does anyone else have a "State Fossil"?
Personally, I think Engler is off his rocker...and has been since the day he was made Governor...
Engler signs legislation to make mastodon the official state fossil (http://www.freep.com/news/mich/fossil9_20020409.htm)
April 9, 2002
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING STAFF
LANSING -- Fans of the mastodon celebrated on Monday, as legislation designating the prehistoric creature Mammut Americanum as Michigan's official state fossil was signed into law.
Gov. John Engler, the person who did the signing, was not one of them.
"I don't know how many more state whatevers we have to have," Engler said, his pen poised above the mastodon legislation.
"I'm just not a big fan of these things."
State Sen. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, sponsor of the mastodon bill, said he's just happy to have it done, grudgingly or not.
McCotter said the initiative was the product of "lots of hard work" by schoolchildren in western Wayne and Washtenaw counties, an effort led by Washtenaw County Community College geology professor Dave Thomas.
"We're not going to complain about the way it happened, as long as it happened," McCotter said.
The mastodon was singled out because signs of its presence in the state have been documented in more than 250 locations.
The fossil becomes Michigan's 11th official symbol, and shares a crowded field of state geological artifacts. Michigan already has an official soil, Kalkaska sand, and stone, the Petoskey stone. Actually, there are two state stones; the other is the Greenstone. But the latter's official designation is state gem.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-22-6609 or dbell@freepress.com.
Personally, I think Engler is off his rocker...and has been since the day he was made Governor...
Engler signs legislation to make mastodon the official state fossil (http://www.freep.com/news/mich/fossil9_20020409.htm)
April 9, 2002
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING STAFF
LANSING -- Fans of the mastodon celebrated on Monday, as legislation designating the prehistoric creature Mammut Americanum as Michigan's official state fossil was signed into law.
Gov. John Engler, the person who did the signing, was not one of them.
"I don't know how many more state whatevers we have to have," Engler said, his pen poised above the mastodon legislation.
"I'm just not a big fan of these things."
State Sen. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, sponsor of the mastodon bill, said he's just happy to have it done, grudgingly or not.
McCotter said the initiative was the product of "lots of hard work" by schoolchildren in western Wayne and Washtenaw counties, an effort led by Washtenaw County Community College geology professor Dave Thomas.
"We're not going to complain about the way it happened, as long as it happened," McCotter said.
The mastodon was singled out because signs of its presence in the state have been documented in more than 250 locations.
The fossil becomes Michigan's 11th official symbol, and shares a crowded field of state geological artifacts. Michigan already has an official soil, Kalkaska sand, and stone, the Petoskey stone. Actually, there are two state stones; the other is the Greenstone. But the latter's official designation is state gem.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-22-6609 or dbell@freepress.com.