Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Mammoth Site

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While in South Dakota, we stopped by Hot Springs to see the Mammoth Site, the World's Largest Mammoth Research Facility.

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They built walls around it and a roof to protect it from the elements.

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We were given a guided tour through the areas then left to explore on our own.

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You can be part of the dig, I think that'd be really cool but I'm afraid I'd miss something.

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Here's the website if you want to plan your own trip there. :)

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6 comments:

  1. South Dakota has SO many super cool places to investigate...love it!

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  2. Amazing. You lucky thing, seeing that!

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  3. That's amazing! I love the pic of the molars. I so wish we could go there. Unfortunately, our trip across country would put us in SD at the very same week as Sturgis.... not good. So we're going across ND.

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  4. good morning~ what a great trip. i love that first & last photo. i don't think i'd be able to do a dig like that either for fear of thinking everything i uncovered would be of value, :) and then there's the worry of breaking something important or worse losing it... nope, not for me. have a great day.

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  5. that's very interesting!

    About 20 years ago, while a local construction company was repairing a dam, they dug up a wooly mammoth. It was very exciting. We drove up and watched the excavation. We watched them chain a large leg bone to a backhoe which lifted it from the site and swung it over to a pick-up where it was lowered and wrapped with some plastic wrap. The most exciting thing was that the mammoth still had it's hair. They figured it had died in a tarpit and because it was so high up in the mountains and so far down in the ground it had been preserved extremely well. The entire skeleton was also found. The original mammoth complete with fur is on display at our local museum.

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  6. Now that looks like a cool place to visit!

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