Mammoth Hot Springs, South Dakota

Our goal today is the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD. This active paleontological dig site boasts the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world. So far, the remains of 58 Columbian mammoths and 3 Woolly mammoths have been uncovered. The site was discovered in 1974 during excavation for a housing development. Fortunately, those who uncovered the bones knew the importance of their find and the site was preserved. Today it is the largest Columbian Mammoth exhibit in the world and a world-renowned research center for Pleistocene studies.

We started the trip however with the mundane task of cleaning the bugs off the windshield. It's gotten pretty bad over the last week or so of rolling down the road at sixty miles an hour.

About halfway to Hot Springs, we passed a Prairie Dog Town along the road near Wind Cave National Park. We had to stop and take some pictures of these interesting guys.

We've arrived at the entrance to the Site.

Fiberglass reproduction of a Columbian Mammoth skeleton displayed in the visitor's Center.

Mammoth Site bone bed.

More of the Bone Bed with in-situ fossils of Mammoth remains.

Most of the bones are left in place once they've been uncovered. To move them would likely cause irreparable damage.

Cut-outs around the site show relative sizes of the animals of the period.

Colored flags mark the locations of discovered fossils.

Jayden listens to the description of the site from the guide by way of a wireless headset.

Tools of the trade. The fossilized remains are painstakingly uncovered using small tools like the spoons and trowel shown here among some of the bone fossils.

Signs are posted throughout the dig to identify the fossils for visitors.

Relative sizes of mammoths and modern elephants. The smallest is a Pygmy mammoth followed by an Asian elephant (brown), a Woolly mammoth (smallest black outline), an African elephant and finally, at nearly 4 meters tall at the shoulder, a Columbian mammoth.

The dig site before it was enclosed in a climate-controlled building. It gets pretty hot in South Dakota!

A mammoth tooth. Imagine getting a toothache in that baby!

Fossilized dung from various animals, prehistoric and modern.

Our grandson, Jayden