Utahraptor State Park in eastern Utah preserves about 6,500 acres around Dalton Wells Quarry, a fossil-rich site central to the study of Early Cretaceous life. Dinosaur remains from roughly 135 to 110 million years ago have shaped understanding of species including Utahraptor ostrommaysi, Nedcolbertia, Gastonia, and Moabosaurus. Excavations by Jim Jensen began in 1975, and fossils from Dalton Wells contributed to the formal description of Utahraptor in 1993. The area also carries a layered human history as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp and, during World War II, the Moab Isolation Center for Japanese Americans. Utah created the park in 2021, linking paleontology with these later histories.