State Game Lodge

Day Nine: 🔥 ///combos.nobles.signature. Wake up with the smoke hazed sun. After coffee we dump tanks and fill the coach with fresh water. Showers and a relaxed breakfast get us in the road by 10:30. We head down to town of Hot Springs and check out 'The Mammoth Site.'

- In June 1974, heavy equipment operator George Hanson was leveling ground for a Hot Springs housing development planned by land owner Phil Anderson. Hanson was grading a small hill when his blade struck something that shone white in the sunlight. Hanson got out for a closer look. What he saw was a tusk, about seven feet long, sliced in half length wise, along with other bones. Mr. Anderson contacted three universities and colleges in South Dakota and one university in Nebraska, none of the 4 colleges were interested in the project nor did they have any desire to come and see what was discovered in Hot Springs.

Mr. Hanson then took some of the bones to his son Dan, who had taken classes in geology and archaeology. Dan Hanson realized these were no ordinary bones. He called his former college professor, Dr. Larry Agenbroad, who was on the faculty of Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska at the time, and asked him to come and take a look at the site. Dr. Agenbroad was in southeastern Arizona when Hanson called, excavating a site where mammoths had been hunted and killed.

The young Hanson kept a 24-hour vigil at the site until Dr. Agenbroad and his crew could arrive. Dr. Agenbroad’s first look at the number of bones exposed by the bulldozer told him there were at least four to six mammoths. He knew there had to be more.

Because of another commitment at the Hudson-Meng Bison kill site near Crawford, NE, Dr. Agenbroad asked his colleague Dr. Jim Mead (now Mammoth Site Chief Scientists and Site Director), and several members of his Arizona dig crew to spend 10 days salvaging and stabilizing the bones, tusks, teeth, and skull fragments that had been exposed. Land owner, Phil Anderson, offered to halt his housing project until they had a better handle on what was there. This short excavation proved significant, as an unprecedented number of specimens were uncovered.

Our next stop was the 'World Fossil Finder Museum.' with an amazing amount of real fossilized bones and assembled ice age animal skeletons. We head North to Custer for a late lunch and some grocery shopping. Back at camp for reading around the campfire and relaxing. It cools off nicely and we have no problem sleeping.Read more