Alan Detrich has offered to give the state a giant fossil fish he says is worth $10 million.

But he said he’s growing frustrated by the fishy politics his proposal has inspired in Topeka, and he might, instead, just sell the specimen to an Irish museum.

“It’s a Xiphactinus audax — they call it the X-fish,” said Detrich, a professional fossil hunter from Great Bend.

His X-fish is almost 13 feet long and weighs about 700 pounds. There’s a similar specimen displayed at the Kansas University Museum of Natural History. Though the museum specimen is bigger, it’s a composite and not a complete, authentic fossil.

The X-fish, sometimes called the “bulldog fish” was an immense predator that swam the sea that covered western Kansas about 150 million years ago. Experts say the X-fish sometimes grew to more than 20 feet in length and had fang-like teeth.

“I’d like to see it up there in the Capitol with the John Brown mural and statutes of Dwight Eisenhower and Amelia Earhart that are carved out of limestone,” Detrich said of his big fish fossil.

However, Detrich’s gift comes with two strings attached:

l The Legislature must name a state fossil — any fossil, though his would be a great candidate.

l Detrich gets a big tax deduction of some sort.

A fossilized skeleton of xiphactinus audax, which swam in the sea that covered western Kansas some 150 million years ago, is on display at Kansas University's Dyche Hall. Kansas fossil hunter Alan Detrich wants to donate a smaller, though more complete, X-fish to the state of Kansas for display in the Statehouse in Topeka. But the donation would come at a price: a 0 million tax break for Detrich and a declaration by the Legislature to name an official state fossil.

He used a classified ad in the Great Bend Tribune newspaper to advertise his offer, and he sent a three-page letter to the House Appropriations Committee. In both his notices he valued the X-fish at $10 million, though its worth is far from certain.

Questionable value

Detrich gained some fame in 2000 when he offered for sale on the Lycos online auction a well preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Original asking price for that specimen was $5.8 million. The fossil was sold, but Detrich won’t disclose the price it brought.

There doesn’t seem to be much agreement among experts about the value of the X-fish he wants to donate to the Kansas public.

Detrich suggested the Journal-World call Larry Martin, senior curator of paleontology at Kansas University’s Natural History Museum.

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“I’ll accept whatever he says it’s worth,” Detrich said.

But Martin wouldn’t put a price on the X-fish.

“I have a legal obligation to recuse myself because my employer might well be the recipient of the gift,” he said. “That’s a conflict of interest.”

Martin instead referred the newspaper to Neal Larson, vice president at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, S.D.

Alan Detrich is shown with the X-fish he wants to donate to the state.

“It’s not worth $10 million. ‘T. rex Sue’ didn’t bring that much,” Larson said, referring to the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex bought at auction for $8.4 million by The Field Museum in Chicago in 1997.

Legislative fight

Expert opinion aside, Kansas legislators are not enthused about Detrich’s offer.

“With the budget as tight as it is, we shouldn’t be giving somebody a $10 million tax credit,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, who last week introduced a bill to prohibit tax deductions for charitable gifts of fossils to the state.

Plans call for the bill to be referred to the House Taxation Committee, chaired by Rep. John Edmonds, R-Great Bend.

Detrich smells conspiracy. He lost to Edmonds in the 2002 GOP primary and accused Edmonds of getting Bethell to do his dirty work. Edmonds said he’s innocent.

“I’m like Will Rogers on this one in that ‘All I know is what I read in the papers,'” Edmonds said. “I saw Mr. Detrich’s ad in the newspaper, but I have to say I didn’t understand it. I forgot about it.”

Bethell’s bill won’t get far, Edmonds predicted. “I can’t imagine we’ll have the time to give it a hearing.”

The Legislature reconvenes today after a three-week break. It’s expected to adjourn this weekend.

Still, Edmonds said he’s no fan of taking up legislators’ time with state fossil-type bills. During a 1999 debate on naming the catfish the official state fish, he read a Dr. Seuss-like poem: “I do not like this ‘state fish’ stuff / I do not like official fluff / I do not like it in the House / What will be next, the Kansas mouse?”

Bethell helped sponsor a 2002 bill that would have named as the official state fossil another Xiphactinus audax at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays.

“It didn’t pass,” he said. “I thought it was a harmless bill. It wasn’t like we were carving out a financial benefit for someone.”

Meanwhile, Detrich said he’s losing patience with lawmakers.

“If something doesn’t happen this year, I’ll just sell it to the Natural History Museum in Belfast, Ireland,” he said. “I sense there’s a vendetta going on here.”