(Photo courtesy of the Mammoth Site: Dr. Larry Agenbroad is interviewed by a film crew from the History Channel in the bone storage area at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.)
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The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs is one of my favorite places in the Black Hills. It’s a paleontology dig and a museum rolled into one very fascinating site. You get an up-close view of hundreds of mammoth bones while they are being excavated. And the facility is set up in a way that really does a good job of telling the sad story of these ill-fated creatures.
Now the History Channel is telling that story as well. A crew from the History Channel series “Evolve” was in Hot Spring to film the site and to interview Dr. Larry Agenbroad, the scientist who has been involved in the project from its beginning.
The series is set to begin airing late this summer. It examines a variety of evolutionary topics in 13 one-hour episodes. The Hot Springs segment will examine why the large continental mammoths are believed to have evolved into the smaller pigmy mammoths, discivered on the Channel Islands off the coast of California.
The Hot Springs Mammoth Site — in my opinion — is also a great story for the way the site got its start.
It began in 1974 with a chance discovery during excavation work for a new housing project. Earth-moving equipment exposed a strange-looking bone. And then another. And another.
Before long, Hot Springs realized it had, just beneath the ground, the greatest fossile treasure in South Dakota. Under Agenbroad’s guideance, the excavation work continued. Then the town put a roof over the dig and started allowing the public to watch the work.
And the work is still going on today.
To date, 55 mammoths have been identified, along with the remains of a giant short-faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf, fish, and numerous invertebrates.
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