On a July day in 1997 in the desert badlands of northeastern Montana, life took an exciting turn for Keene State College alum Louis Tremblay '64. The ninth-grade earth sciences teacher from Connecticut had made a discovery that would lead to newspaper headlines across the nation. Tremblay didn't realize the significance of the discovery until later that summer, however, when he was told that the bones he had found in the dusty Montana hills belonged to a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur, quite possibly the largest ever found.

Lou was participating in a summer "dig" with Dr. J. Keith Rigby, his second with the Notre Dame University paleontologist. Rigby had been working in the northeastern Montana area for several years, gathering evidence to determine what actually happened when dinosaurs became extinct. Tremblay was one of four Earthwatch volunteers who were prospecting that July day – walking the hills around the dig in search of bones and bone fragments.

Digging on the site where they had literally stumbled over a protruding bone, Tremblay and another Earthwatch volunteer exposed what would turn out to be a Tyrannosaurus rib and claw. However, when Tremblay left the site two weeks later, he had no idea of the significance of his find.

Lou's involvement with Rigby's research had begun six years earlier, in 1991. He had been teaching earth science since 1967 at Avon High School in Avon, Conn. As part of his graduate studies at Southern Connecticut State University, Tremblay had to work with a scientist either in the laboratory or in the field. Through Earthwatch, a nonprofit organization that provides volunteers to work with scientists on particular projects, Tremblay was put in touch with Rigby and worked for two weeks that summer in Montana.

"It was a good experience, " says Lou. "We didn't find any large dinosaurs. Mostly we spent our time filling burlap bags with dirt and whatever fossils the dirt contained." They would take the material to the lake and run it through screening boxes to concentrate the fossils; it would then be sorted and analyzed. "It's a way of documenting the types and numbers of dinosaurs that were present in that period before extinction," he says.

It's a good example of the fact that "most of the time, science consists of tedious work," Lou says. "You have your moments of excitement, but much of science is real back-breaking work that needs to be done to gather the information needed for various studies."

For Tremblay, his "moment of excitement" was to come six years later in that summer of 1997. When he left the Montana site for his planned summer vacation with his family, he knew only that the gigantic dinosaur bones they had discovered belonged to a carnivore – a meat-eater.

"I was vacationing with my family in Stowe, Vermont," says Tremblay, "when Dr. Rigby called and said I wouldn't believe it, but he was quite sure we had found a T.rex."

Continuing their vacation, the family went to Cape Cod where Dr. Rigby again called Tremblay. "He told me that not only had we found a T.rex," says Tremblay, "but it might be the largest T.rex ever found."

The Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest carnivore ever to exist on the planet. There are only about 15 or so known skeletons of T.rex and the Montana skeleton appeared to be not only the largest, but nearly complete. The T.rex roamed western North America some 66 million years ago, during the Cretaceous era.

Even after Rigby's big news, Tremblay couldn't say much about the discovery. Ribgy and Earthwatch, fearful of looters, wanted to keep it quiet until the team could return the following summer, complete the excavation and get independent corroboration of the fossils.

Tremblay had returned to his earth sciences classroom in the fall when he got the news that the Waltons, the former owners of the cattle ranch on which the fossils were found, had entered the site and begun digging up the bones that remained in the ground. The Waltons claimed they still owned the land and apparently planned to sell the fossils to a private collector.

Earthwatch issued a national press release and Tremblay immediately began getting calls from TV and newspaper reporters. He made immediate plans to return to Montana with Rigby for an emergency rescue of the gigantic dinosaur. Meanwhile, a title search showed the U.S. Government owned the land. Federal law enforcement agents descended on the site and forced the former owners to vacate it.

Since that pivotal year of 1997, Tremblay's life has been heavily involved with dinosaurs. He has continued to be involved in Rigby's work in Montana and was put on staff in the summer of 1998. He works as a foreman, supervising digs and teaching new volunteers how to do bone preparation in the laboratory He spent eight weeks on the Montana site in 1998, six weeks in 1999 and seven weeks in 2000, where the T.rex is still not fully excavated. Rigby hopes it will eventually be exhibited in a proposed museum in Fort Peck, Mont., slated to open in 2005. As currently conceived, the museum will house the largest dinosaur exhibit in the world.

In addition to his work on the Montana digs, Tremblay also helped Rigby teach a basic geology course to teachers from Georgia this summer and worked with him on a joint U.S.-China dig in the Yunnan Province in 1999-2000.

When he's not participating in digs, the 59-year-old Tremblay is either substitute teaching at his former school in Connecticut or making presentations to elementary school children. "The most fun is the way the elementary kids get excited about dinosaurs," he says. "You never get high school kids that excited."

Tremblay, after 35 years in the classroom, retired from his full-time teaching position in 1999 so he could devote more time to the dinosaur digs. "But it's unusual to go a week without being called in to teach," he says.

Next summer, Tremblay, working with Rigby, is embarking on a new teaching project. They will offer a series of five two-week digs near Fort Peck, Mont., to alumni from selected colleges and universities – including Keene State. The sessions will include field and laboratory work and cost $1,500. Tremblay can be contacted at 860-674-9121 or loutrem@aol.com. Keene State College alumni interested in joining a dig may contact Mike Maher, director of alumni and parent relations, at 603-358-2370 or mmaher@keene.edu.

Lou can't promise participants a major discovery like his, however. That's something that usually doesn't happen even once in a lifetime.

"At the time, I didn't fully appreciate how lucky I was," says Tremblay. "By simply going out and doing the prospecting, I was able to find something that led to something very significant. I haven't had a similar experience since, but I continue to do it and hope that lightning will strike twice."

Parts of this story are based on a March 1998 article in Smithsonian Magazine by David Roberts titled Digging for Dinosaur Gold.

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