Geology professor Thomas Condon with his specimens at the University of Oregon in the late 1880s.

The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center is named for the first man to recognize the importance of the John Day Fossil Beds.

Thomas Condon, an early Oregon minister and self-trained scientist, was the first person to identify the John Day fossil basin as a world-class paleontological area. He learned of the areas abundant fossils from soldiers in 1862. At that time, Condon ministered at a church he established in The Dalles, Oregon. In 1865, he visited the basin and started excavating fossils. The specimens he sent to museums on the east coast for verification ignited scientific interest. In recognition of his scientific work, Condon was appointed the first Oregon State Geologist in 1872 and later, named Professor of Geology at the University of Oregon. He held the position until his death in 1907. His work continues to inspire.

Evolution was simply Gods method of working, and therefore not atheistic or infidel. -Thomas Condon

The Pioneer Missionary as Scientist

Thomas Condon believed that religion and modern science went hand in hand. He originally came to Oregon territory in 1852 to spread the gospel after becoming a protestant minister in New York. But after investigating fossils in the John Day area, he developed a scientific passion for paleontology.

Condon believed science was a means to understand the spectacular nature of Gods creation. The Hills from which these evidences were taken, he wrote in reference to the evolutionary record of the fossil beds, were made by the same God who made the hills of Judea, and the evidences are as authoritative. The Church has nothing to fear from the uncovering of truth.