Shuffling through specimens of shale pressed with prehistoric organisms, paleontologist Herbert Meyer kept coming across a familiar name.

It’s 2009, and Meyer had just completed a database for the petrified pieces found at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. In documenting these fossils, dating back 34 million years, he saw a name again and again: Charlotte Hill.

Charlotte Hill was an early homesteader who settled in Florissant in 1874. Soon after settling, she would become known for her significant contributions to paleontology, collecting hundreds of fossils never before studied by scientists. (Courtesy of the

National Park Service)

“I had gone out to many of the museums where her collections had been sent decades ago, and especially at the Smithsonian, there were many of the specimens that had been recorded as the collector having been either Mrs. Hill or Charlotte Hill, it was recorded. So I was familiar with her name,” Meyer said.

With the new database, Meyer decided to explore more about this Charlotte Hill.

“I could go in and start querying the database to see how many things she had actually collected, and it was really a very staggering number,” he said. “It was around 2009 when I first really started looking into that and realizing that, wow!, She collected a number of what are called type specimens — it’s like one single specimen that’s put aside when a scientist describes a new species. So it’s a very important specimen.”

Charlotte Hill was an early homesteader who settled in Florissant in 1874. Soon after, she would become known for her significant contributions to paleontology, collecting hundreds of fossils never before studied by scientists, and promoting the understanding of geological record. Numerous fossils collected by Hill are preserved in the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History and at Harvard and Yale universities.

But her contributions would go quiet for nearly a century — until Meyer worked to excavate her story.

From homesteader to naturalist

While Hill was born in 1849 in Indiana, her family relocated to Colorado City when she was 11. From there, at just 13 years old, she married local carpenter Adam Hill, who was 27. The pair, who had seven children together, settled in Florissant just over a decade later during the winter of 1874.

The young family had built their new homestead on one of the richest fossil deposit sites in the world: the Florissant Fossil Beds.

Fittingly, the pair called their new home Petrified Stump Ranch, an ode to the massive petrified redwood stumps that littered the property. The unique location at first provided Charlotte and Adam a way to make a living, soon turning into a passion of Charlotte’s.

“It really was her passion to collect the fossils, and yet ironically, when you look at the census record, it’s listed that she ‘keeps house,’ and Adam is listed as the one who’s the collector, so it’s just (a) kind of the sign of the times of how that was recorded. But, you know, it’s pretty clear that that Charlotte really made most of the collections there,” Meyer said.

Two of Charlotte’s children died before age 2, and Charlotte occupied her time raising her remaining five children and collecting fossils. In 1880, The Fairplay Flume published an article on Charlotte and her passion as a self-made naturalist.

“Only two miles from Florissent (Florissant) postoffice are the quite famous petrified stumps. They are situated on a ranch owned by Adam Hill, and are the pride of his wife, Mrs. Charlotte Hill, who has turned naturalist, and has displayed at her home an elegant array of geological specimens,” an excerpt from the paper reads.

Charlotte’s hundreds of fossil specimens drew the attention of scientists who visited the site to study her collections throughout the late 1870s. Paleontologists Leo Lesquereux, Samuel Scudder and E.D. Cope described hundreds of new species of fossil plants, insects, spiders and vertebrates gathered by Charlotte.

In 1883, Lesquereux named three new species in her honor, including a fossil rose, Rosa hilliae.

But perhaps Charlotte’s most significant find was the Prodryas persephone — the first fossilized butterfly to be found in North America, and one of the most well-preserved specimens documented at the site. That specimen is now housed at Harvard University.

“The hallmark fossil that she collected is the butterfly,” Meyer said. “It’s probably the best fossil butterfly in the world.”

Charlotte and Adam lived on the ranch — hosting curious visitors and scientists — until 1883, when they moved back to Colorado City. By 1902, the pair moved to Santa Cruz, Calif., where they lived the remainder of their lives. Charlotte died in 1930, but there is evidence that she continued to visit the site well into the 1920s.

Recognition comes late

Charlotte’s contributions to paleontology largely went overlooked after her death.

“The story was never told,” Meyer said. “But Charlotte, clearly because of what she collected, she played such an important role in what made Florissant world famous.”

After becoming a national monument in 1969, the Florissant Fossil Beds turned its attention to another woman homesteader’s story, that of Adeline Hornbek. Why? Meyer believes it’s as simple as the fact that the Hornbeck Homestead, built in 1878, was still standing on the property.

But since researching Hill’s contributions, Meyer has worked to reframe the spotlight.

“I always felt that story needed to shift — because the emphasis of the monument is paleontology — to shift to show what a woman homesteader contributed towards the science,” said the national monument’s paleontologist of merit. Meyer retired in 2023, after nearly 30 years of working for the monument.

Meyer made sure to include Charlotte’s story in a book he co-wrote about the history of the site, “Saved In Time,” released in 2011. Written with Estella Leopold, a paleo-ecologist and activist who fought to protect the Florissant Fossil Beds by establishing the site as a national monument.

“I think one of the things that’s always been significant for us is the role that women have played, especially in the establishment of a monument,” Meyer said. “Having that sort of anchoring link, way back in the 1870s, where there was a woman who was involved not as a professional paleontologist, but as a collector, and who had collected so many of the things that went to the scientists that became the type specimens. … It’s a very significant role. I think that is a very significant part of the history of the monument.”

Now, the story of Charlotte Hill is highlighted at the Florissant National Monument. Without her contributions, many of these fossils might never have been uncovered.

“A self-made naturalist, Charlotte Hill is the homesteader who links us to the monument’s primary purpose,” Meyer wrote in a 2009 newsletter about Charlotte. “It was she who helped to unveil Florissant’s place in world fame.”

After compiling more information on Charlotte’s work, Meyer helped organize a celebration for her 160th birthday on Feb. 15, 2009. And it was a success — more than four generations of family members gathered to celebrate her birthday.

“It was an amazing turnout,” Meyer said. “None of them really realized that Charlotte had this really significant role; it was news to the family as well.”

Charlotte’s grandson was able to attend the event.

“When you think about it, for somebody who was homesteading fossil beds in the 1870s to still have a surviving grandson was just amazing to me,” Meyer said.

In his 90s at the time, her grandson was able to provide the monument with pictures of Charlotte — a face that for so long had gone unknown, now unearthed.

“At that point, I didn’t know what it looked like, she was still just a name,” Meyer said. “Her grandson had found the photograph that we feature now at the national monument. … That’s when Charlotte really sort of took face, and I think that photo was taken a few years, obviously, after she had homesteaded there, but at least it gave us some idea of what she looked like.”