The Ice Age Explorers Program offers up to 10 participants each week the opportunity to be a part of the ongoing preservation and excavation efforts at The Mammoth Site. The program runs for two, week-long sessions in July, Monday through Friday, with lunch provided on those days. Participants will have the opportunity to assist with ongoing excavation and preservation efforts within the in-situ bonebed, fossil preparation in the prep lab, and screen wash and pick sediments for microfossils. Join us for an optional welcome dinner the Sunday night before your workweek begins. 

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No prior experience is required, as training is provided onsite. Participants rotate through different areas over the course of the week, giving them the chance to experience all aspects encompassed at The Mammoth Site. 

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Click here for more details on what to expect on a paleontology dig.

The Mammoth Site is completely enclosed within a climate-controlled building; however, South Dakota weather can still vary between warm and cooler temperatures in the summertime. 

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Working conditions in the bonebed, prep lab, and screenwashing stations can get dirty. Please bring: 

• Long pants

• Long shorts

• Long-sleeved shirts and/or t-shirts

• Closed-toed shoes with low treads are recommended when working in the bonebed. Closed-toed shoes are also recommended in the prep lab due to exposure to chemicals and equipment. Flip-flops are recommended when screenwashing, as shoes may get wet. 

• Work gloves and kneepads (optional)

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Tools for excavation and preparation will be provided by The Mammoth Site. Please do not bring your own unauthorized tools for working during the program. 

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If you are in need of accommodations, The Mammoth Site will make arrangements at a cost of an additional $600.00 per week.

1. What makes The Mammoth Site significant?
   The Mammoth Site is significant for a number of reasons. The large concentration of mammoths in our in-situ bone-bed represents a unique find that permits us to explore questions regarding morphological change, taphonomy, and behavior in mammoths. Beyond that, The Mammoth Site has evolved into an in-situ museum with a broadening regional research focus on Ice Age faunas of western North America. With projects around the Black Hills and elsewhere in western North America, our on-going research helps to contextualize the Ice Age world of mammoths. Lastly, the site is important because it represents a “living” museum exhibit where visitors are directly exposed to the on-going work at the site, including both scientific research and museum studies (e.g. conservation). The site offers not only a window into the past, but also a window into how we study and preserve that past. 

2. What has been most surprising about your discoveries at this location?​
   Frankly, it’s hard to top finding 60+ mammoths and I’ll always be a little jealous of the folks who were here when the site was discovered. I’ve spent my career working on Ice Age faunas, and finding that concentration of mammoths in one spot is continually awe-inspiring to me.

3. What are your current research objectives at your site? 
   My current objectives really stand on the shoulders of the researchers who came before me. They set a stage where I think we can see The Mammoth Site grow in different ways, and my immediate predecessor rekindled opportunities for re-examining what we thought we knew about the site itself. Over the next little while we’ll be working to re-examine some of the mammoth material recovered from the site, excavating to test newly formulated hypotheses about formation of the site, and using a revised chronology as a starting point to develop new questions about regional biological change in the Black Hills.

4. What was most important or rewarding find at this site?
   ​I think it’s incredibly rewarding to know that even after almost 50 years The Mammoth Site still has much to tell us about the Ice Age.