Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD

This was a pretty cool site. Back in 1974 a man by the name of Phil Anderson bought the land and was preparing to build houses on it, when earth moving equipment unearthed what later was discovered to be mammoth teeth.

Since then a total of 55 mammoths have been found in this one area. Scientists believe it was a huge local watering hole created by a sink hole in the land. Bad thing about it were the steep sides; mammoths would fall in, but then were unable to climb back out. As a funny side note, all of the mammoths found were males. Hmmmm....

Visit the Mammoth Site website for more information and history.

Upper right corner is a skull with both tusks. Bottom left are leg bones, spine and ribs.


This is the most complete skeleton they've found so far. Starting at the bottom of the picture are the back legs, then the pelvis, spine, ribs, front legs and the head is underneath the front portion of the body.