we were fighting on every front you could think of. from the sue freedom run, to petitions we took to the state capitol. i would talk in front of groups anywhere. terry was so involved in this case. i mean, he lived it. one of the most moving things in my life to see was this wonderful group of people here, supported us getting sue back. the u.s. attorney, mr. kevin schieffer, made a terrible error. to come in that tragic day on may 14th, hill city. the right thing to do in this case would be to return the dinosaur to hill city. [ applause ] we ve got now over 20,000 signatures on the one petition, the first petition to bring sue back. and they re from all 50 states and from 14 other countries. a lot of people didn t have a lot of money around here, so
you know, it was like a funeral, losing a family member. it just felt like a nightmare, like it just wasn t really happening, just. the place was a mess. we, all of a sudden, were a mess. and they hauled sue away. i don t know how peter did it. one of the hardest things to watch and be a part of was knowing that literally peter was in love with that dinosaur.
i could just see these idiots, you know, just try to pack up my dinosaur and take it away and ruin it. how dare they? how dare these people do this? unconscionable. i can t imagine somebody being able to do this here in the united states of america, in a free country. in order to ensure that this dinosaur could be carefully packed up, we helped. it was pretty clear that they didn t know what they were doing. these people didn t know anything. i mean, most of these guys hardly go out in the field at all. what do they know about preparing a fossil or packing it or anything? the larsons were trying to do little bit of negotiating. put sue under lock and key at our place to prevent damage. i said to kevin schieffer, you just tell me and that fossil won t go anywhere. it s not like it s going to disappear in a briefcase. that request was denied. it is clearly a violation under
little museum on our parents ranch, it s always been our dream to have a museum here in hill city. and finding sue the tyrannosaurus rex, here s the anchor for the museum. the whole town is behind us. it s going to put hill city on the map in a way that it s never been on the map before. didn t matter how many other projects we had going on. with sue, sue took precedence. we found out all kinds of cool things about this dinosaur. broken and healed bones all over the skeleton. this animal had a terrible life,
if she wasn t going to be in black hills where she morally should be, field museum was a good place. this was just the kind of place that we felt sue had to go to. my reaction was relief that that s where it wound up, where the public and scientific community will have access to it. i think it s probably the second best place she could have been. it s going to go where millions of people would see her. she s not going to be in prison anymore. sue is free. and people can see her and they can get the same excitement that i have for her, and they can love her just like i do. to me, the dinosaur still belongs in hill city. pete s the kind of guy who can go out and find another half a dozen more t-rexes. but there was only one sue. in your life, you don t hope to find something that good, but