The child of German immigrants, Fred Alten lived the first part of his life in Ohio, where he worked in his father’s foundry. In 1912, he moved to Michigan and worked at a variety of occupations, including laborer, piano mover, and carpenter. Alten was an introverted man who spent all his spare time in a woodshed carving his animals in solitude. In 1975, Alten’s entire life’s work was found in a garage where it had remained unnoticed for thirty years. Also in the garage was a copy of Johnson’s Household Book of Nature, the inspiration for Alten’s carvings of modern and prehistoric animals.

Elizabeth V. Warren and Stacy C. Hollander, "Dinosaur," Expressions of a New Spirit: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art (New York: American Folk Art Museum, 1989), 113