In
a nutshell ~ The Mammoth Site was a very cool place to visit.
A
bit of history ~ in 1974 a housing developer, Phil Anderson, was bulldozing the
land to build houses, when he realized he found some very old bones and
fossils, and more importantly, recognized the significance. He sold the land
for what he paid for it, and as of today, the remains of approximately 60
mammoths have been found, along with Giant short-faced bears, camels, llama,
prairie dogs, wolves and fish.
As
an active archeological site, paleontologists are still digging and working,
discovering more bones and fossils from the ice age. As they work, visitors are
offered a 30-minute tour of the facilities, where one can learn about the
history of the site, the ongoing research, and about the animals and their
lives. Basically what happened was this was a sinkhole in which the mammoths
fell into and could not get out, thus died, and were preserved. For the record, all of the mammoth bones
found are male, which might answer the question for men, “If your friend jumped
off a bridge, would you follow?” Obviously for the mammoths of the ice age, the
answer was a resounding, “yes.” :-)
After
the 30-minute tour, guest are welcome to meander the site (not the dig area,
but on the walkways) and take pictures and look at the fossils some more. There is a small museum with various other
fossils, such as the ever-popular elephant dung!
Easy and affordable - no matter where you are!
1 comment:
We thought it was pretty cool too. Be sure to visit the nearby Wild Horse Sanctuary.
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