Fossil Preparation and Restoration

The White River Preparium
Ed and Sandy Gerken of the White River Preparium have been working with fossils for many years. Both started their fossil careers at The Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research. Ed started at the The Black Hills Institute in 1984 and did
a lot of photographic work for them.

Sandy started at The Black Hills Institute in 1986 and was given the opportunity to learn how to clean and work with fossils. This started their fossil careers which would later lead to the preparation and restoration of fossils.

Sandy worked full time at The Black Hills Institute for four and one half years learning how to prepare fossils of all types. Sandy then went on to prepare fossils for the Custom Paleo Company for two more years.

In late 1992 Sandy started her own preparation company " The White River Preparium" and her husband Ed eventually left The Black Hills Institute and worked with her full time in their ever growing business. Since the starting of her company Sandy has prepared fossils for a large number of clients and worked on a broad range of specimens. Sandy and Ed have a fully equipped preparation lab, and can handle most projects presented to them from cleaning and restoration, to painting displays and challenging photographic assignments. They also collect and buy fossils, which can be
purchased prepared or unprepared from their website.


Ed continues to photograph all types of fossils, and his work has been published in books and magazines around the world. Sandy now has grown and earned the reputation of being one of the top preparators around. Sandy is also one of the very few women who operate their own fossil business. You can contact Ed and Sandy directly by phoning them at 605-574-2051 or email them directly by clicking on the letter at the bottom of the page. I have personally had them prepare many fossils for me and found their work to be outstanding.Ron Buckley 8/19/2000

For more information related to dinosaurs, visit rareresource.com.