Tuesday morning found us heading out from Alliance, NE, bright and early. We decided to add a stop to our trip based on the South Dakota visitors guide - Mammoth Site. The drive to South Dakota was pretty!
The Mammoth site is a working archaeological dig that allows visitors to come see the actual remains of Woolly and Colombian Mammoths. It was discovered when a developer, many years ago, started removing dirt from a huge eye sore of a hill. Today, the archaeologists are still digging and researching their finds. The bones we saw are the actual bones of Mammoths because the site is dedicated to preserving in state the remains. The bones are often carefully removed and as cast is made for study and then the bones are replaced in their original location again.
Entry to the dig area is timed, so while we waited for our tour, we visited the gift store and education area. We stood next to bears and practiced our excavation techniques. The Columbian Mammoth has the most bones in the dig - looks a little like an elephant, just lots bigger!
The background of this first picture shows how much bigger the mammoths were than our current elephants are. As you walk through the area, you can see where layers were formed and how several of the mammoths died while trying to climb the very steep walls of the sink hole.
We saw leg bones, hips, teeth, head skulls, tusks, ribs, and so much more. Awesome place to visit!
We even saw a few backbones. No researchers however. Our visit was during the first week of most colleges so the researchers for the summer had returned home and the ones for the fall hadn't arrived yet.
After exiting the actually dig site, we were able to see replicas of bears, miniature elephants, and ways bones would have been used when the creatures roamed the earth.
The Mammoth site is a working archaeological dig that allows visitors to come see the actual remains of Woolly and Colombian Mammoths. It was discovered when a developer, many years ago, started removing dirt from a huge eye sore of a hill. Today, the archaeologists are still digging and researching their finds. The bones we saw are the actual bones of Mammoths because the site is dedicated to preserving in state the remains. The bones are often carefully removed and as cast is made for study and then the bones are replaced in their original location again.
Entry to the dig area is timed, so while we waited for our tour, we visited the gift store and education area. We stood next to bears and practiced our excavation techniques. The Columbian Mammoth has the most bones in the dig - looks a little like an elephant, just lots bigger!
The background of this first picture shows how much bigger the mammoths were than our current elephants are. As you walk through the area, you can see where layers were formed and how several of the mammoths died while trying to climb the very steep walls of the sink hole.
We saw leg bones, hips, teeth, head skulls, tusks, ribs, and so much more. Awesome place to visit!
We even saw a few backbones. No researchers however. Our visit was during the first week of most colleges so the researchers for the summer had returned home and the ones for the fall hadn't arrived yet.
After exiting the actually dig site, we were able to see replicas of bears, miniature elephants, and ways bones would have been used when the creatures roamed the earth.
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