Dinosaur remains were undoubtedly found in North America in prehistoric times. Historically, their tracks, though not recognized as dinosaurs' at the time, were catalogued by Pliny Moody in 1800. The bones of a hadrosaur were found in New Jersey and described by Professor Joseph Leidy in 1858. These bones, which are on display at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, were part of the first mounted dinosaur skeleton in the U.S. In 1859, a scant year after the New Jersey hadrosaur was discovered, Dr. Christopher Johnston described some dinosaur teeth that were found at an iron mine near Bladensburg, Maryland. These teeth were given the name Astrodon (star-tooth) by Dr. Johnston and were formally described and named Astrodon johnstoni by Professor Joseph Leidy in 1865. The teeth currently are housed at the Peabody Museum of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. The find and identification are truly remarkable when one considers that dinosaurs were recognized as a formal group only 17 years earlier, and in England, at that. This rapid recognition of dinosaurs in North America is early evidence of the power these creatures seemed to exert on our imaginations from the very first.

Hatcher found hundreds of bones and teeth, which are now housed at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. With a few exceptions, virtually all of the dinosaurs known from Maryland were found by him in the years 1887-1888. These bones were shipped to Marsh at Yale, who then described them. They were all, of course, new to science. In addition to dinosaurs, one species of turtle and one of crocodile were discovered.

The work of Marsh and Hatcher inspired a young local geologist and budding paleontologist, Arthur Bagnold Bibbins, to look for bones. He reported on his findings in 1895 while a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University. Over the next several decades, Bibbins collected and recovered most of the additional bones and teeth in the Smithsonian's current collection of Maryland dinosaurs. Comments on his collecting methods follow (from Recent Discoveries of Cycadean Trunks in the Potomac Formation of Maryland, by Lester F. Ward):

In appointing Mr. Bibbins curator of the college the right step has been taken to further these ends. A post-graduate of Johns Hopkins at the time of his appointment, Mr. Bibbins has been trained to the best scientific work. He is naturally endowed in a high degree with true scientific instincts as well as with practical judgment and good sense. It is these qualities which have led him to adopt an entirely new method in searching for scientific material. Knowing the rarity of fossil cycadean trunks and their great value to science, he set himself the task of trying to secure some of these for the college museum. But, instead of undertaking a hopeless and aimless quest, as has been done by geologists and collectors in the past, he chose to avail himself of the knowledge of the inhabitants of the districts in which the cycads were believed to occur. Supported by the Woman's College, which furnished him the means of transportation and met the small expense of his work, including an occasional pour boire to some needy farmer or miner who possessed information of great value, and usually gave it freely, he proceeded to visit the houses of the native population, and placing himself on a level with their powers of understanding, he was able to interrogate a large number of persons in such a way that they could not fail to comprehend his meaning. Having secured one specimen, he carried it about in his wagon and showed it to all whom he met. His surprise was great to find that a large proportion of the inhabitants of the iron ore districts had at some time in their lives seen similar things and were able to recognize them. In some cases a person to whom he would show his specimen would reply at once that there was such a stone in his barnyard or near his house, and by a very little negotiation he was able easily to secure it. By far the greater number, in fact nearly all, of the specimens were thus found in the possession of the people. Many of them could remember having ploughed them out of their fields, or taken them from their ore pits; others there were that had lain so long around farm houses whose occupants had several times changed that it was impossible to trace them to their original source, but usually even in such cases there was a tradition lingering in the family with regard to the peculiar stones. The reason why they were so universally picked up and brought to the house or the workshop or the barnyard or laid up in some conspicuous place seems to be that their peculiarity was instantly recognized. A countryman knows every stone that he has seen about his place, and if there be one which differs markedly from all others, especially if it has a certain symmetry of form or shows unusual and regular markings, he at once distinguishes it, is impressed by its appearance, and probably, at first at least, couples with the notion of its strangeness some vague idea of its possible utility or money value. He therefore invariably picks it up and sequestrates it in some way. After many years, finding that there is no demand for it, that no one knows any use to which it can be put he eventually loses interest in it, and it is pushed aside, forgotten, and perhaps covered up in some obscure corner. So that in addition to the specimens that Mr. Bibbins actually obtained, there remain quite a number which are known to exist, but which for the present cannot be found.Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!
Mr. Bibbins always frames his questions with skill, taking care not to ask leading ones, realizing that the desire to please is liable to color the answer and make it conform to what it is supposed he desires to have said. He therefore always takes pains to induce these people to tell what they know independently of any suggestion on his part.

As an illustration of the accuracy with which such persons often observe and remember facts, may be mentioned a case in which one of these traditional lost specimens was being inquired after from an octogenarian who remembered seeing it some forty years before, and when asked if the "holes" in the stone were "round" he replied "No, they were sort o' three-cornered," a remark which rendered it certain that the object was really a cycad.Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!
Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!
Mr. Bibbins always frames his questions with skill, taking care not to ask leading ones, realizing that the desire to please is liable to color the answer and make it conform to what it is supposed he desires to have said. He therefore always takes pains to induce these people to tell what they know independently of any suggestion on his part.Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!
Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!
As an illustration of the accuracy with which such persons often observe and remember facts, may be mentioned a case in which one of these traditional lost specimens was being inquired after from an octogenarian who remembered seeing it some forty years before, and when asked if the "holes" in the stone were "round" he replied "No, they were sort o' three-cornered," a remark which rendered it certain that the object was really a cycad.
Since the early part of the twentieth century, when local iron mining ceased, very few dinosaur bones have been recovered from Maryland and its environs. This is, for the most part, due to a lack of knowledge about local bones by the general public. In addition, modern excavation methods using large machines have removed workers from close contact with the ground. Two noteworthy but isolated discoveries took place in Washington, D.C. In 1898, some men digging a sewer at First and F Streets, S.E., found the remains of a carnosaur ("Dryptosaurus," or a related species). Workers found a very large legbone from Astrodon, a brachiosaurid, while building the McMillan Water Filtration Plant at First and Channing Streets, N.W. in 1942. There have been other finds at other locations, but much needs to be done. The bones are still here, but few people are looking for them!