Hello r/AskHistorians!
In an effort to stay active in the pandemic, myself and some colleagues are planning a short film that takes place largely during an understaffed, bare-bones (no pun intended) paleontology expedition to Wyoming Territory in (roughly) 1890. We'd love some help nailing down the specifics of what a small, low-budget team might have, as well as any other fun tips you might think of!
In particular, we're interested in what kind of backpacks or similar receptacles they would use to transport their equipment and findings, the tools available to them at the time for digging and extracting fossil remains, and the survival equipment they might have on hand to traverse the wilderness and camp out in field and forest.
Bonus points for pictures and external resources!
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.