Frederick Carl Kessler (1883-1963) was a history teacher at Cañon City high school and devoted his life to education; first as a high school teacher, and, after his retirement, as the curator of the municipal museum. His love for natural history was revealed in a booklet, The Royal Gorge, History and Geology, published in 1941. The booklet included natural and cultural history and was illustrated with photographs and pen and ink drawings, but his focus and interest lay in geology and minerals.
Kessler, a shy and intelligent man, enjoyed nothing more than taking groups of students into the Garden Park Fossil Area to learn about the geology of the area. It was on one of these after school excursions that Kessler and his students found the most important fossil for Colorado: its State Fossil. Explore the website to learn more about Kessler and the State Fossil.
