"We understand that the project is taking a long time," said Wally Dupree, who is leading the excavation. "But we're out there looking for dinosaur bones, it's not like we can just dig the whole hillside out."
The Smithsonian first arrived in Brilliant two years ago, when a local Boy Scout troop claimed that they discovered an Archaeopteryx fossil. The US government then claimed eminent domain on the hillside and the Smithsonian has been digging ever since.
"We dug up some sandstone on the very first day," Dupree said. "That's a good sign because we've found Spinosaurus and Giraffititan fossils in sandstone before. In fact, we've found sandstone every day since we first began; we have to be getting close."
Local residents have started to express doubt that the researchers will ever find the fossils.
"Them guys up there are just using toothbrushes and little garden shovels and some of them chisel things [sic]," said Rush Run resident Marlon Higgins.
"What the indigenous Valley people don't realize is that we need to be careful," Dupree said in response to the criticism. "We can't risk accidentally breaking one of the fossils."
The dig also came under fire late last year when the supposed Archaeopteryx fossil was discovered to actually be fossilized chicken remains. The Smithsonian still retains that the fossil is in fact an Archaeoptryx specimen after storing in a safety deposit box.
"The government's been covering up stuff like this for years," said Higgins. "They're lying to us so they can charge us more taxes to fund their stupid little dig."
Route 7 is scheduled to reopen to two full lanes in November of this year.
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