The story is true. The dinosaur was really there, near a little town named San Ysidro, just a few miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The family in the story decided to show the location of the dinosaur to a paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management. Under his direction, and with the aid of some heavy equipment and about a hundred volunteers from around Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, the family helped uncover more bones.
Other paleontologists from universities and museums became interested. They agreed that the find was indeed important. People and equipment were provided to dig up the remaining bones. Within a few years, other dinosaur bones were found by other people searching in the same area where the family had found theirs.
Eventually the bones became part of the collection of a brand new museum, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. Some of the bones were restored and put back together.
Now anybody can go to the natural history museum and see some fossil dinosaur bones on display.
After all, is it really very hard to decide what to do with a dinosaur?
Electronic version: Copyright 2001 William Johnstone Will Johnstone