A chance encounter on Facebook might have landed the city a mascot and fundraising opportunity for its planned fossil park.
Rick Spears, an artist and retired educator from the Atlanta area, saw a video on Facebook last fall that mentioned the city’s hopes to establish a fossil park along the Luxapalila Creek near Propst Park. Recently retired after 30 years working for the DeKalb County School District, where he designed and built exhibits for Fernbank Science Center, Spears was so intrigued by Columbus’ idea, he tracked down Susan Wilder, the city’s grant administrator, and messaged her on Facebook.
“I just wanted to reach out and see if there was something I could do to help this get started,” Spears told The Dispatch. “… Somebody once said that all kids go through a dinosaur phase. It’s like they have a dinosaur disease. Unfortunately, I didn’t outgrow mine. I’m terminal with dinosaurs.”
For his first contribution, Spears is sculpting a baby ornithomimosaur to donate to the city for a raffle. Not to worry, though. At 18 inches tall and two feet long, the lucky winner of the cast-resin artwork won’t need high ceilings to display it.
“It’s bigger than a hatchling, but it’s not quite a teenager,” Spears said. “… It will fit on a tabletop.”
Wilder said during a city council work session Thursday at City Hall she hopes the raffle will raise at least $10,000 for the fossil park. She’s setting a goal to sell at least 2,000 tickets at $5 each.
The council must first accept the sculpture donation, which it will consider at its Tuesday meeting.
The baby dinosaur image could also appear on t-shirts and other branding for the park, Wilder said. It has also inspired the main character for a children’s book – which local historian Rufus Ward plans to write and Spears illustrate – about the adventures of a dinosaur named Luxi that grew up on the Luxapalila Creek about 80 million years ago.
“I’ve illustrated several children’s books, mostly dinosaurs and cryptid zoology, like Bigfoot,” Spears said.
Book sale proceeds will help support the maintenance of the fossil park once it is built, Wilder said.
‘I’ll die doing it, but it will happen’
First floated by Ward in 2016, the idea for the fossil park along the Luxapalila took off in November, when the council gave Wilder and Parks and Recreation Director Greg Lewis permission to pursue grants to fund the estimated $700,000 project. Fossils, including those of ornithomimosaurs – an ostrich-mimicking dinosaur of the Cretaceous Period – have been found along the creek over the years.
As currently planned, the fossil park will start in the southeast corner of Propst Park on city property, where the disc golf course meets the creek, and run adjacent to the Luxapalila. North of the disc golf course and up the creek, the best fossil formations for digging are currently located on private land, and the city is trying to purchase 34 of those acres.
The park would have a wilderness trail, pavilion and would host educational programming.
So far, the project has garnered a $2,000 donation from the Billups-Garth Foundation to appraise the private property the city seeks to buy. Wilder said she has applied for another $140,000 in grants from T-Mobile and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks.
On Thursday, the council approved allowing her to apply for any grants that don’t require matching funds from the city, as long as they are for the fossil park. Generally, the council must approve grant applications individually before they are submitted.
Wilder said many of the no-match grant applications will go to various foundations. Since some of those will require funding to flow through a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, instead of a municipality, she also requested the city sign a memorandum of understanding with the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation to be the nonprofit conduit for the fossil park.
CCHF also has a sales tax license to sell items at the Tennessee Williams Home and Welcome Center. The MOU would open the door for fossil park t-shirt, book and souvenir sales that would support the project, Wilder said.
“It’s a perfect fit,” Wilder said. “… I know t-shirts don’t raise a lot of money, but the marketing value is great as well.”
The council will consider the MOU at its Tuesday meeting.
Wilder told The Dispatch she is hoping local individual donations will also propel the project forward. She said she’s set a personal “deadline” of mid-May 2026 to finish and open the fossil park.
“I’ll die doing it, but it will happen,” she joked.
Whether Wilder’s around to see the project realized, Spears’ influence may not stop with a tabletop sculpture and book illustrations.
“I actually built a life-size T-Rex a couple of years ago,” he said. “It’s probably the biggest one I’ve done. I can imagine some life-size models eventually making their way to the fossil park there.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
