Author: Zebulon Rogers
In 1971, a bulldozer operator working at the Keystone Azurite Mine in Moab, UT uncovered a set of human skeletal remains 58 feet below the surface of a Dakota Sandstone bed in southeastern Utah, rock classified by geologists as belonging to the Lower Cretaceous layer or roughly 140 million years according to evolutionary myths. The name ‘Malachite Man’ was given to a particular set of remains partially replaced with bright green malachite, and were first excavated and sold by rock hound Lin Ottinger who originally dubbed them ‘Moab Man.’ Additional skeletons were excavated by Dr. Don Patton in 1990.
Dr. Don Patton in 1990/Bible.ca
The Lower Cretaceous layer is well known to contain dinosaur remains. The famous Glen Rose Formation was featured in Trey Smith’s Jurassic documentary as well as his YouTube presentation, which proved the existence of fossilized human footprints overlapping dinosaur tracks. The Dinosaur National Monument that sits between Utah and Colorado is host to a number of dinosaur remains. Does this mean that man and dinosaurs walked the earth together in the ancient past? Upon closer examination of the remains, many paleontologists cried foul, including several major creation institutions who withheld support for the find until it entered a satisfactory peer-review process. Some went on to claim that the remains were victims of a mine-shaft collapse, but the mixed genders and ages of the remains, including four female and an infant, exclude this theory. No mining tools were found with or near the remains, nor was there any evidence of a mine shaft having been in the area.
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6KIQVFnZE”]
Another theory suggests it was a series of intrusive burials, that is, they were put in a mass grave dug into soft blow sand that remained covered for hundreds and not thousands of years. Proponents of this theory also claim that Dr. Patton’s 1990 excavation was only 15 feet below the surface and not part of the host formation (Dakota Sandstone), though he stated in the above presentation that it was 15 feet below the original 1971 Malachite Man find. The following illustration presented by Dr. Patton shows the formation as it appeared prior to its 1930 excavation and later it’s 1970 excavation:
The screenshot above shows a 50-foot layer of sedimentary rock alternating with soft layers with the approximate location of the skeletons, with another 150 feet between the skeletons and the road that was cut through prior to 1930. This illustration, if accurate, completely refutes both theories. Evidence then leans in favor of Patton’s conclusion.
http://www.dinoland.com/ For more information about Dinosaur Land, Vernal, Utah.
We will attempt to vet these claims with Dr. Don Patton himself, who has been the target of criticism from both sides of the creation/evolution debate as well as outright attack from the latter. Creation Ministries International refuted a revised version of Dennis Peterson’s Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation for citing Malachite Man as irrefutable fact. Despite these criticisms, these same institutions have offered little in the way of taking it to a peer-reviewed level even within the creationist movement, a considerable argument against staunch opponents of a pre-Flood interpretation of the find. However, little information is known about the actual history of the Keystone Azurite Mine apart from its modern-day archaeological significance. Should any more facts be discovered, we will report them in a future article here at GIAN.
What are your thoughts? Is Malachite Man a relic of the pre-Flood era or a case of misinterpreted of geological history? Give us your best (and polite) analysis in the comments below.
