Explorers, seekers, those-who-are-curious:
- Have you ever had a unique or amazing experience that you wanted to share?
- Did you ever think "I should write a story / take a picture / make a video about that..."?
- Did you let that spark of inspiration grow dim, and not follow through with your idea - because you didn't think you could do it, or didn't think it would matter if you did?
Sylvan Bald knows how you feel - and can tell you the value of following your ideas, no matter what.
Sylvan is a young hiker who discovered dinosaur fossils along a popular canyon trail, high in the mountains of southwest Colorado - fossils so unique that they are now featured in the local museum! Encouraged by a mentor and his teachers, he wrote a children’s book about his experience, and partnered with his childhood friend, Ting Taylor – the artist who illustrated the book – to bring it to press.
With the help of their parents, the two teens:
- Formed a business partnership, worked with a book designer, and published the first edition
- Produced a video about the book project and launched an Indiegogo campaign with it
- Started giving presentations to young readers, did several book-signing events, and spoke at the grand opening of the museum exhibit.
Of course, there was some good luck and good timing involved - but it was also a two-year effort, even while the two friends were going to school, participating in sports, and working part-time.
Sylvan and Ting's experience shows what's possible if you try to make your ideas come true, and stick with the effort long enough. What's your creative idea? What can you do to make it happen?
Our Adventure Begins...
Even though it was a gorgeous fall day in southwestern Colorado, twelve-year-old Sylvan Bald didn’t want to go on a hike with his parents. He would much rather stay home to read his new book, or play with his pile of Legos, but he reluctantly agreed to go.
Once out in the woods, he happily ran up and down the trail looking all around at stones - pocketing those that struck his fancy - and picking up walking sticks along the way. An avid rock hound, Sylvan’s nickname was “Finder of Many Treasures”, for he was always spotting interesting or unusual items. Whether he’d been to a shopping center parking lot, a concert, or a remote forest, Sylvan could be counted on to come home with something unusual in his pockets.
Wandering down the trail, Sylvan saw something out of the corner of his eye: weird blue stones embedded in a bigger rock, right off the path. He looked at them more closely… and realized that these weren’t just another couple of cool things to bring home, these looked more like bones!
He called his parents over to look, and they all decided that these “stones” were actually fossilized bones, just like in a museum… but these were just lying out here in the woods! Whose were they? How old were they? Why were they blue? What should Sylvan do next?
Read this exciting story of how an alert young explorer discovered the first known dinosaur bones in Ilium Valley, and how they were recovered and displayed at the Telluride Historical Museum! Stop and wonder: just what else might be out there in the San Juan Mountains - or your own local woods - to discover!