Rosie and I packed a few things in two suit cases and took off for the black hills a week ago. We only had four days, so we had to make tracks because we were supposed to make breakfast at church for the Rotary Club on Fri Morning. We made it as far as Yhangton SD after getting a late start Mon. Morning and stayed in a little motel not far from the Missouri River. Then a ride through the Bad Lands Park and next day we arrived in Hill City about 10 miles from Mount Rushmore. We took in Mount. Rushmore and headed for Dead Wood making a loop to Hot Springs SD and stopped to see the Mammoth Archeological Digs. Someone in the 80s started construction on a housing project and found some bones and new it was important. He called in some expert and it became the most significant find of Colombian Elephant bones ever found. Prehistoric fossils are fascinating to me and we spent some time there going over all I could, to get an idea of what had happened there 10,000 years ago. A cave formed under the ground surface and eventually caved in leaving a hole that fill with water sense the walls of this hole were strait up and down anything that fell in could not climb out. The animals of that period would walk up to get a drink, fall in and would drown. The hole filled with sediment to the top and over 10,000 years the ground around it was eroded away leaving a mound about 200 ft. across. They found bones of camels short faced bears ( twice the size of a grizzly) and the remains of 62 Colombian Elephants ( much larger than Wooly Mammoths ). We went back to Deadwood and spent a couple days taking in a museum and the Spearfish Canyon. All in all a very enjoyable time.
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