The Fascinating Archaeological Discovery That Put This Nebraska Riverbank On The Map
By Tori Jane|Published November 21, 2023
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
A long time ago – and I mean a long time ago – some truly amazing creatures roamed this planet that. Among these beasts was the mammoth, a name used to describe any member of a now-extinct group of elephant-like creatures that varied in weight but could reach up to 14 tons. In 1987, an absolutely amazing discovery of one of these magnificent beasts was made on the banks of the Medicine Creek River in southwest Nebraska. Come check out this absolutely remarkable archaeological discovery in Nebraska and acquire a fascinating key to the past.
Note: It's remarkably difficult to find any photos of this amazing discovery, so instead, I've illustrated this article with photos from the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History. You should definitely go there if anything in this write-up intrigues you!
In 1987, two Bureau of Reclamation archaeologists were conducting a routine shoreline survey of the Medicine Creek Reservoir when they stumbled - quite literally - onto something amazing.
It was the partial remains of an enormous adult mammoth buried about 11 feet beneath the surface.
Needless to say, this pair of archaeology geeks were endlessly excited about this and opted to share the site with the rest of the scientific world. And the things it's revealed since have put this little spot in Nebraska on the map. Now, this site is known as the La Sena Mammoth Site, and it's been invaluable in our pursuit of understanding Nebraska's natural history.
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...well, if you're an archaeology nerd like I am, anyway. But, I digress.
It is not entirely known how this behemoth of an animal met its end, though its bones did show signs of perhaps having been killed by prehistoric humans for food.
Other ideas about how the mammoth met its fate include its having been trampled by other mammoths, a theory based on the fracturing of bones, and predators gnawing on the remains post-mortem to create the marks on the bones. Whatever secrets this prehistoric beast had, including the means of its demise, died with it about 28,000 years ago.
Though you can't visit La Sena Mammoth Site yourself, you can take a road trip north on the 71 from Crawford, Nebraska, on a short drive to Hot Springs, South Dakota, and check out the ULTIMATE mammoth site.
It's called - for obvious reasons - The Mammoth Site, and it's truly a gem for nature lovers past and present.
What do you think? Is this amazing archaeological discovery in Nebraska intriguing, or what? Have you ever been to the Mammoth Site? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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