From the Nebraska welcome sign I continued following highway 71 all the way down to River Road and came in to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument from the east. If I had to do it again I’d pick another route as large parts of that are gravel and I had farm semi trucks blasting past me and kicking up rocks and dust. Come in from the west side, much nicer drive. Anyways I’m here now so hooray!
My feet were still hurting something awful from Black Elk Peak so no hiking today which is a shame since the park has some pretty cool trails. I’m a bit sad but my doggies are barkin’ so not hurting myself further wins the day. This one is the Fossil Hills Trail and it starts right from the main parking lot.
That trail leads you up to University Hill (left) and Carnegie Hill (right) where you can observe the original fossil quarries from the early 1900s. According to the NPS description it’s a 2.8 mile accessible trail with 250ft elevation gain to the top so shouldn’t be very difficult.
Visitor Center
Today’s experience is going to focus on the visitor center. Looks quite simple and almost like a house from the outside. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover though.
Inside the main exhibit area there is a huge number of displays with more details than my brain can remember, mostly centered on the fossils and paleontology. There are no T-Rex or velociraptors here (sorry Jurassic Park kids), but what they do have is a plethora of unique prehistoric animals you’ve probably never even heard about. Be sure to watch the informational film – it’s a small theater but very informative.
I’m going to paraphrase from my notes but strongly suggest if you are into this stuff to visit the NPS site and read about it in more depth. In short, this site focuses on the Miocene Epoch mammals discovered in historic Agate Springs quarries which were found up on those hills outside. Terrible Pigs, Slothfoots, and Beardogs – oh my! No seriously, thank your stars we weren’t alive with these things 23 million years ago. That bad pig would have been bison-sized, and the beardogs were hyena-like predators that, to me, look like a Great Dane mixed with a greyhound that has a taste for flesh. No thanks.
As the story goes, these mammals died out due to climate change and resulting drought causing this last waterhole to dry up, and thus the fossils were largely concentrated in this area until the water ran out. Initially discovered around 1880, they would have to wait until the early 1900s for paleontologists to begin the careful excavations. This display shown below details some of the tools and methods. Again, I am just skimming the surface here – much more in-depth stories an resources about this are on the NPS and other sites.
James H. Cook Collection: A Window Onto Lakota Life
The other half of the visitor center is the James H. Cook collection containing a plethora of Lakota cultural pieces. Cook was a cowboy in the Nebraska area at the time and was hired by a Yale paleontologist to help communicate with the Lakota Sioux as he knew some of the language. He then met with Chief Red Cloud to communicate on their behalf which then developed into a life-long friendship. The Lakota visited Cook at the Agate Springs Ranch and exchanged these gifts to Cook for beef and hides, and also helped around the ranch with hunting, tanning, and sharing stories.
Artist Dawn Little Sky (Lakota) of the Pine Ridge Reservation created this Winter Count, or pictorial calendar, as a modern record of the lives of Red Cloud and James Cook. Winter counts are cultural traditions and record the most significant events as well as births and deaths. The pictorial representation is used as a mnemonic device and then retold to share knowledge from generation to generation.
The second room of the collection has multiple artifacts in glass cases that include things like saddles, clothing, bead work, weapons, and more. No doubt this is an impressive collection an should give some idea of how good of friends they were.
I’m very glad to have seen Pipestone National Monument just days before arriving here so that I can understand better the significance of the pipes. There are several on display made from the unique pipestone as well as a sign explaining their use and meaning.
Here we see a stunning painting on hide of the Battle of Greasy Grass, also known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn; or as most people know it, Custer’s Last Stand. This was considered a great victory by the Lakota. What makes this one so very interesting is that actual warriors from that battle communicated the events to Jack Red Cloud and other artists who then painted everything. A direct retelling from the people who were there, transformed into art.
And finally here is Red Cloud’s shirt that he wore while having his portrait painted at the ranch. The small placard says this is made from two pieces of antelope hide; the colors yellow, green, red, and blue indicate he was a Lakota leader; and that Red Cloud gave this to James Cook on his final visit to the ranch in 1908.
One thing that struck me the most is this two-paragraph writing about the struggles between Red Cloud and the US Government forcing them off their lands and making them to change their way of life to a farming-based subsistence. “The white man can work if he wants to, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work.”
Daemonelix Trail Head
Final stop today was at the Daemonelix trail head just west down the road a short distance from the visitor center. There is a four-panel info-graphic detailing more about the park service sites, paleontology, and cultural history.
The trail is a short 1 mile path to the fossil site. Again, wished I could have hiked it today but my feet are broken. If you look up photos online of the Daemonelix, or Devil’s corkscrew, you will see the fossils just the same. These are large corkscrew-shaped tunnels that were burrows carved out by Palaeocastors (prehistoric beavers). You can also see a replica in the visitor center.
It’s midday now so I still have time left for exploration but of course the autumn sun never lasts all that long. Time to put some miles under my tires again but still within Nebraska for a bit.
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