Bankruptcy Buys Joe Taylor Time

Artifact’s sale may save Crosbyton fossil museum

By Henri Brickey | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Friday, January 25, 2008

A week after filing for bankruptcy and selling his prized mastodon skull, the owner of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton says he should be able to stay in business.

“We think we’re going to be able to continue business as usual and get this thing straightened out,” Joe Taylor, the museum’s owner, said Thursday.

Two weeks ago, Taylor, 63, was facing the possible closure of his museum due to a legal battle that left him in a financial strait jacket. The sheriff’s department was on the verge of forcing Taylor to sell his museum, which he opened about a decade ago.

Taylor’s only hope was to make enough money by selling his mastodon skull to pay his legal bills and settlement costs.

The mastodon skull, the largest ever found, was sold for $191,200 last week at an auction in Dallas. Of that money, Taylor will get to keep about $128,000 – almost enough to pay the $136,000 he is required to pay in damages stemming from a disagreement with a former colleague over discovery rights to an Allosaurus skeleton.

“This whole thing should have never happened,” Taylor said.

The $128,000 from the sale was enough to call off the sheriff’s sale,

though Taylor still has a few details to work out and still owes the remaining $8,000.

The ordeal began after a landowner outside Dinosaur, Colo., contacted Taylor in 2001 and asked him to oversee a joint dig involving a group of aspiring home-schooled junior archaeologists. The team found the Allosaurus skeleton, but soon afterward a debate began over who should be credited with the discovery of the fossil.

In April 2004, the two sides agreed to a settlement, which ensured Taylor would be paid $124,843 for his share of the Allosaurus, which was sold to a third party for $200,000.

Part of the agreement also stated neither side could disparage the other without facing a fine.

Between June 2005 and January 2007, Taylor made at least 20 attempts to explain what happened at the Allosaurus dig near Dinosaur through various posts on the Internet, letters and e-mails.

A mediator later found each of Taylor’s public postings regarding the dig constituted a disparaging comment, which in the end cost Taylor more than $130,000 in damages owed to the group he had formerly settled with.

Local Newspaper Article About Joe Taylor

Fossil find could lead to ruin of Crosbyton museum owner

By Henri Brickey | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Sunday, January 13, 2008
It seemed like the discovery of a lifetime for Joe Taylor – half of an Allosaurus dinosaur skeleton with a perfectly intact head.

Instead, unearthing the extremely rare fossil marked the beginning of a chain of events that may ultimately result in Taylor’s financial ruin.

“It has been nothing but a nightmare,” Taylor said recently from the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which he opened in Crosbyton almost a decade ago. The museum features hundreds of actual dinosaur bones and casts, some made from fossils Taylor found and later sold to a museum or university.

Seven years after Taylor and a team of amateur archaeologists dug up the Allosaurus, Taylor is on the verge of losing his museum due to a drawn-out legal battle over rights of that discovery.

He’s hopeful the sale later this month of a mastodon skull, perhaps his most prized possession, will net enough money to save his business.

As a creationist paleontologist – who believes dinosaurs lived thousands and not millions of years ago – there’s no doubt Taylor has a maverick reputation according to many in the dinosaur-digging community.

But it’s not some creation-bashing evolutionist plotting against Taylor.

It’s one of his own, another Christian paleontologist and former colleague of Taylor who is suing him for almost $130,000 over the Allosaurus debacle.

That’s the most heart-wrenching part of this whole ordeal, Taylor says.

“This is friendly fire,” he said. “It’s greed. It’s about money and fame.”

Back in time

The Allosaurus was a large, meat-eating dinosaur that lived between 155 and 145 million years ago, according to most scientists.

Taylor, and other creationists, say the Allosaurus and other dinosaurs lived on Earth several thousand years ago and were wiped out by a worldwide flood survived by Noah. The museum features a display on Noah and his ark.

But that’s a whole other story.

This story is about one particular Allosaurus.

Back in 2001, Taylor was contacted by a landowner outside Dinosaur, Colo., who wanted Taylor to oversee a joint effort between a group of aspiring home-schooled junior archaeologists and a professional excavation team. The team struck dino gold when it found the Allosaurus. That, they all agree on.

But there are several versions of exactly who in the group should be credited with the discovery.

For several years after the find, both sides issued their versions of what happened at the excavation site.

A documentary was made, Web sites were established, letter-writing campaigns were organized – a full-fledged battle of words between the two sides erupted.

Then, in April 2004, everyone sat down and agreed to a settlement. The agreement ensured Taylor would be paid $124,843 for his share of the Allosaurus, which was sold to a third party for $200,000.

Part of the agreement, called a non-disparagement clause, stated neither side could talk badly about the other any more.

That’s where Taylor dug himself into a hole. A $130,000 hole.

That’s how much Taylor has to pay for the 20 disparaging comments he made against the claimants through various posts on the Internet, letters and e-mails between June 2005 and January 2007.

At $5,000 per disparaging comment, Taylor’s crusade to clear his name cost him $100,000, plus $29,399 in legal fees he has to fork over to the claimant – costing him more than he made on the Allosaurus find.

“Of course I can’t come up with anything near that,” Taylor said.

And that doesn’t include the thousands of dollars in legal costs Taylor has already paid leading up to the settlement.

Going for broke

Taylor says he’s in a classic David versus Goliath scenario, fighting against what he calls a mega-church with deep pockets and even deeper political influence.

Taylor didn’t want to name the organization he’s fighting, fearing that would add to his $100,000 bill.

“I can’t fight against a million dollars,” he said. “This has wiped us out. What are the chances that I can rebuild this business from scratch at 63 years old without a penny to spend?”

He has already sold a triceratops molding to help pay for the legal battle.

“That was hard but I had to do it to survive,” Taylor said. “It felt like I was selling my daughter to the highest bidder.”

In the meantime, Taylor is hoping to either get an appeal filed or earn enough money from the sale of a mastodon skull to pay off his legal debts and remain in business.

The mastodon skull, the largest ever found, will be auctioned January 20 in Dallas as part of the Signature Natural History Auction.

Bids for the “Lone Star” skull, which Taylor took possession of in 2004 after a crew found it in a gravel pit near La Grange, start at $120,000.

“Hopefully, some rich Texan will buy it for $1 million,” Taylor said.

If not, Taylor says he faces an uncertain future, which could include closure of his museum.

Official Public Notice To Doug Phillips

Joe Taylor Invites Doug Phillips To Peacemaker Mediation

This past Saturday, April 21, 2007, Joe Taylor attempted to have Doug Phillips served a letter at Vision Forum’s offices. Joe didn’t want to give Doug an opportunity to ignore a letter in the mail, or refuse a certified letter, so a legal process server was hired to ensure that Doug would receive Joe’s letter.

Vision Forum’s web site had advertised their annual open house was taking place on April 21. Vision Forum also announced that Doug would be available from 2:00 through 4:30 PM for a book signing. This was the obvious logical time to have the process server come to Vision Forum. But Doug never received Joe’s letter.

The entire incident of the process server’s story is in itself very intriguing and was, at least for me and several others who now know the story, quite humorous. But to hear it, you’ll have to come back Monday.

Here is Joe Taylor’s letter to Doug Phillips, posted here as a Public Notice.

April 20, 2007

Joe Taylor
Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum
124 W. Main, P.O. Box 550,
Crosbyton, TX 79322

Douglas W. Phillips
Vision Forum, Inc.
4719 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78212

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Matt. 5:23-24

Dear Doug,

I apologize for this request being served to you during your busy schedule, but you are gone a lot, and hard to reach.

In addition, the recent judgment from arbitration with the Pete DeRosas and myself has only served to heighten the unresolved conflicts between you and me.

In 2003, you wrote me to complain of my privately exposing your “documentary” video, “Raising The Allosaur.” This review was not actually made public then. However, why shouldn’t it be? Every film that comes out is reviewed and often very negatively.

In your letter to me of January 20, 2003, as well as other correspondence, you have taken the position that my exposure of your video somehow makes me guilty of “slander” and that what I have done “would be actionable defamation in any court of law.” You have accused me of “speaking evil of brothers without working through the biblical guidelines for conflict resolution.” You have accused me of many other things as well, all without any supporting evidence. For example, you’ve accused me of “blackmail.” You’ve even accused me of “anti-Semitism,” a truly outrageous allegation. I have many hundreds of pages of evidence, not to mention hundreds of photographs and many hours of video tape that I believe unequivocally makes my case.

You accuse me that, “You have consistently and willfully refused to follow any biblical guidelines for conflict resolution, notwithstanding our repeated recommendations to you to do just this.”

Yet, many of the very things that you have accused me of are the very things that you yourself are guilty of. And contrary to your accusations, I tried many times to meet with you and practice Matthew: 18, which you so often and loudly demand.

I agreed to mediation with you and Pete DeRosa both. You agreed as well. The problem is that while Pete and I made an appearance and signed the mediation agreement, you never even showed up. And you, Doug, the one who was so insistent, never signed the agreement. Needless to say, nothing has truly been “resolved” by the alleged “conflict resolution.”

It appears to me that the mediation was more a means to silence me and prevent further exposure of un-Christian deeds than it was to resolve conflicts.

I’ve attempted to resolve my differences with you many times. The fact that you evaded signing the mediation agreement doesn’t mean that our issues are resolved or that these problems have just gone away. I’m sure that you’re more than aware of the need to address our disputes. The Word tells us, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” (Rom. 12:18)

Many friends and associates in the past several years encouraged me to sue you, but I did not because I thought you were a Christian brother. (I Cor. 6:1-8)

Your January 20, 2003 letter states, “We are committed to following biblical guidelines of conflict resolution, arbitration and church discipline.”

I’d like to give you the opportunity to prove that you are sincere about that by extending the offer to you to discuss biblically-based Christian conflict resolution with me.

I’m told that Peacemaker Ministries claims that both their mediation and arbitration are biblically-based. Decisions can also be binding, and it is recommended that we agree to the details of this in advance.

All I’m asking you for at this time is a simple written “yes, I will discuss this with you,” or “no, I will not,” answer. The details would be worked out later. Please have a written response in my hands by May 5, 2007.

My offer is genuine, and made in the interests of the whole creationist as well as the home school community.

Doug, there has been entirely too much strife between us. It should be put to an end. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Phil. 2:3

In the bonds of Christ Jesus,

Joe Taylor

If you don’t know the story behind this letter, you may read it here.