Stan is from the soil of South Dakota. Born and raised. Today, he’s one of the oldest residents to ever hail from the Mount Rushmore State. Being from such a relatively remote area, you might be tempted to think that Stan hasn’t been to many places, but you’d be wrong. Stan’s traveled far and wide across the globe. New York. London. And, as of today, as far as anyone can tell, Stan is in Saudi Arabia of all places. At least parts of him have moved there. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
You see, Stan was named after Stan Sacrison, a decent enough fellow who was out looking at prairie flora one day. It was Big Stan who took our Stan home with him after finding him lying exposed on the side of a sandbank in the grasslands of South Dakota. He was wrapped in a piece of burlap, and Big Stan took him with him. Adoption is always tricky, even in the best of circumstances, and people were indeed curious as to how, exactly, Big Stan came across the foundling. The authorities were certainly interested.
It seems that this type of situation isn’t that unusual in South Dakota; another such incident involved a girl named Sue who was discovered alone near one of the Sioux native tribal reservations in the state. In Sue’s case, she was taken in by an adoptive organization and institutionalized. There was a long legal case over Sue, as the natives claimed that she rightfully belonged to them, but the courts decided she was more of a “finders-keepers” type of situation and allowed the institution to keep Sue.
Meanwhile, Big Stan managed to keep what he jokingly and lovingly called his “little treasure.” But there were issues. Doctors studying Stan after he was brought in found that there were injuries to his back, and there were puncture wounds to his skull and neck. Yes, it was a good thing Big Stan found him when he did.
The problem for finding out more about Stan’s origins–and his death–is that his skeletal system was, well, incomplete. Big Stan didn’t find a human child in the South Dakota grasslands. He found skeletal remains. That’s why I said only parts of Stan are in Saudi Arabia. He was sold for millions of dollars to a private collector.
You see, Stan, like Sue, is one of the most complete T-Rex specimens ever discovered.
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