Hot Springs is about an hour south of Rapid City, and its top draw, the Mammoth Site, was on our agenda for the day. In a nutshell, it’s an actual mammoth dig site in a nicely covered building with a museum and gift shop (are you noticing a trend?). On the guided tour they explain that it’s probably situated on an old spring-fed sinkhole where mammoths got in but couldn’t get out. In 1974 someone wanted to build on this random site and discovered bones when they started digging. Fast forward to today where a climate-controlled building sits atop the dig site where the bones of 55 different mammoths and assorted other beasts have been discovered.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but going in my expectations were low. I’m happy to report they were greatly exceeded during my visit. It’s not real big, two hours is plenty of time to see everything, and those are *actual bones* that are exposed in the buried sediment. Very cool!
After our tour we were hanging around taking pictures when the director of the site came over and starting chatting with us. The girls both expressed their interest in what was going on here and he offered applications for a 2-week Young Scientist Scholarship where late high school or early college age kids can come and work as part of an excavation team. He invited us into his office while he gathered the paperwork and they received signed post cards and were offered his card for any follow-up questions. What a wonderful hands-on experience that would be!
(Link to all unedited photos from The Mammoth Site.)
While in town, we also spent some time at Evans Plunge, the world’s largest natural warm water indoor swimming pool. This spring-fed 87-degree pool is (supposedly) filled with therapeutic “healing” water. A little pricy for the short time we were there, I would classify it as optional on any tour of the area. It’s weird experience to swim in a crystal-clear non-chlorinated pool with a small rock bottom.