 Word that Lakes had notified Cope of his finds galvanized Marsh into action . When Marsh heard from Union Pacific Railroad workers W.E. Carlin and W.H. Reed about a vast boneyard northwest of Laramie in Como Bluff , Marsh sent his agent , Samuel Wendell Williston , to take charge of the digging . Cope , in response , learned of Carlin and Reed 's discoveries and sent his own men to find bones in the area . The two scientists attempted to sabotage each other 's progress . Cope was described as a genius and what Marsh lacked in intelligence , he easily made up for in connections — Marsh 's uncle was George Peabody , a rich banker who supported Marsh with money , and a secure position at the Peabody Museum . Marsh lobbied John Wesley Powell to act against Cope and attempted to persuade Hayden to " muzzle " Cope 's publishing . Both men tried to spy on the other 's whereabouts and attempted to offer their collectors more money in the hopes of recruiting them to their own side . Cope was able to recruit David Baldwin in New Mexico and Frank Williston in Wyoming from Marsh . Cope and Marsh were extremely secretive as to the source of their fossils . When Henry Fairfield Osborn , at the time a student at Princeton , visited Cope to ask where to travel to look for fossils in the West , Cope politely refused to answer . 
