Morrill

Today was another day with few plans but a bit of travel.
We left Custer and headed out towards Nebraska.
Turns out that part of the drive was through a National Forest so once again we got to see a few bison wandering along the road side.
Today is really damp and chilly, pretty much constant rain here.
Made our way into Hot Springs and found the Mammoth Site. (
Note to self - Craig makes for a terrible navigator)
The Mammoth Site is literally just that - a site that thousands of years ago was a spring fed sink hole where unfortunate, unsuspecting young male mammoths came to an early end.
They have so far found the remains of 61 mammoths, itself an impressive number - until you find that they are only 20 or so feet into a 60 foot deep sink hole!
As it turns out, there were numerous types of mammoth and wooly mammoth were much smaller than the Columbian mammoth. These are the two types that they have found in the sinkhole - 3 wooly, 58 Columbian, and the interesting thing is that they have been able to tell that they were

around in the same time periods, something not believed previously. They've also found remains of numerous animals that are still around in the area today (such as rabbits, gophers, pronghorn deer) along with a now extinct short snouted bear that they believe was much bigger than any bear in existence today (scary thought!)
This place was just a very cool educational place that even the boys found quite fascinating. You can even take a ride downstairs and see them working in the lab identifying bones etc.
Continued our trip into Morrill, Nebraska. Kind of a nothing town really, though the hotel we stayed in owned a pretty cool little 50's style diner where we had dinner and breakfast.
Can not get over the way they have their dairies and feed lots for cattle here. No wonder people complain about farming here. We've found several of these places along the roads and interstates and the smell is just horrendous. Guess that's to be expected though when there are literally thousands of head of cattle together in small, muddy, manure filled pens. Makes me miss real farming at home!