When it looked like it might rain on us during the night on the evening of August 19, we decided to check into a motel. \u00a0Next morning, we visited the Mammoth Site,\u00a0a museum and paleontological site near Hot Springs, South Dakota. It contains the remains of fauna and flora preserved by entrapment in a karst sinkhole during the Pleistocene era 26,000 years ago, including\u00a0Columbian & woolly mammoths, camels, wolves and giant bears.<\/p>\n
In 1974, a construction worker, George Hanson, unearthed unusual bones while the area was being prepared for a new subdivision.\u00a0His son recognized one of the finds as a mammoth tooth.\u00a0The landowner agreed to further investigation, and a complete skull and tusk were found in 1974.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Donations, some made by local citizens, along with the work performed by amateur and professional excavators, led to its status as a museum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The site has been totally enclosed and is still being actively (but slowly and carefully) excavated by trained volunteers supervised by scientists. \u00a0An adjoining exhibit hall displays full-sized replicas of mammoths, a giant short-faced bear and a walk-in mammoth bone shelter. \u00a0When Barb and Jeff finally pulled me away — I enjoy reading ALL of the text at ALL of the displays — we drove up to Wind Cave National Park. \u00a0Stay tuned for that account.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t