Side Dish - The Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, SD 7/4/10

Some side dish entries are truly cheesy, and have little to no historic significance. The Mammoth Site in the tiny burg of Hot Springs, SD, is a site that, although a National Historic Landmark, should actually be under Federal guidance in the NPS system. Rare is the location where you can see so many complete fossils of the Ice Age giants, the Woolly and Siberian Mammoth anyway, but the commercialization of the site and shoddy 10 year old tour guides need to be replaced......Right. Bloody. Now.

At this unassuming site, an open pit in the 1970's was discovered containing dozens of complete Mammoth Skeletons and at least 50 other mammals. Unfortunately, as the excavation continued, the weather did not cooperate and filled the site up, hindering exploration. The citizens of Hot Springs made a wise decision and began putting the site under shelter. Granted, the building looks like a high-school gymnasium, but it does the trick.

The building, however, gives the impression that this could all be fake. Once viewing the short 10-minute video, a local high school student takes the visitors into the building for the pep rally tour. Rows of telephones overlook the site, where the tourists line up, answer the phone, and listen to Katelyn tell you about the skeletons, even though you can hear her perfectly without the phones. This was truly strange. But Katelyn was s-e-r-i-o-u-s. "Pick up the phones. Can everyone hear me?? Did you pick up the phones?".......Uh. I can hear you from my hotel room, why do I need this phone?

Why are all of these skeletons in one small location? 26,000 years ago, the waters of Hot Springs lived up to their name, and in the dead of winter provided a warm respite for the creatures traversing the land. The warm water beckoned the Mammoths and other animals to the water's edge, where many of them inevitably slipped and fell into the marsh after getting stuck in the thick mud on the sides. It is estimated that 5 or 6 Mammoths slipped under the waters every 2-3 years. Not a huge number to be sure, but the karst sediment provided a perfect fossil atmosphere, much to our benefit.

Excavation continues, and we were informed that the 15-foot sediment tower you can briefly see in the picture above (on the right) will take approximately 10 years to fully uncover to protect the (hopefully) full cache of bones underneath. Katelyn told us that the homecoming game was bitchin and OMG Tyler is SO hot Mammoth's had names such as Beauty(??), and Napoleon Bone-a-parte (because his bones were found not all together...Get it?). The skeletons were actually quite nice, and Ice Age history appeared before our eyes with every step of the Excavation Pit.

This site is important. No where else in the world can you see more Mammoth fossils in one location. So, once again, why in the name of all that needs to be saved is this site still in private hands? This site aches for the interpretation of real Paleoentologists, and the steady (read: Mature) hands of the NPS. The entire site did not have an employee over 19 while we were there, and they were obviously bored to tears and only took the job because Dairy Queen was not hiring. Sites like this deserve to be on the NPS map.....