August 12, 2022
Sturgis Rally Week so we are heading south. We decided to visit Wind Cave National Park Visitor’s Center and go on down to Hot Springs to see the Mammoth Site. I opted for a scenic route that we had taken before. Always a chance to see wildlife. We made to Wind Cave National Park but had to stop en route. The reason, about 150 bison crossing the street. Maybe more. It was interesting to watch people get out of a car or off their motorcycle to take selfies, etc. Bison are wild animals. While most were not that close, but all it would have taken is someone to blow a horn.
We arrived at the Visitor’s Center. Most people there were there to take the tour of the Wind Cave. We sat in a small theater and watched a wonderful video on the Wind Cave National Park and focused on the wildlife and plant life. It was very informative and educational. They also had some exhibits in the center so we walked around and learned even more. One of the most interesting items was a display of two elk skulls with their horns interlocked. The story was that these elks were banging heads and their horns became interlocked. They could not release from each other. They died this way.
We proceeded to drive through Hot Springs and finally found The Mammoth Site. It was a really cool place. We weren’t really sure what to expect. We had read some online about it. We entered the building and they also had a video that explained how the site came about and the history. Very interesting and very educational. A brief history is that the property was being developed by a new owner. During excavation, a bulldozer dug up a bone. The owner called in an expert and they discovered that the excavation was in a sinkhole and that hundreds of thousands of years ago mammoths roamed the area. This sinkhole lured the mammoths in for water and they would go to far and fall in. The shale sides prevented them from climbing back out. They drowned. The bones discovered were actual bones and not fossils. As the owner saw the importance of the discovery, the project was scrapped. Instead, they built a structure around the entire site and it is still an active archeological site. While we were on our tour, people were working. One worker made a discovery while we watched him worked. He had a supervisor come out to see. We talked to him and he thought he had discovered a “toe bone of an antelope”. Apparently this would be a big discovery. This has been a very educational day. Awesome.
