Dem Dry Bones 07/29/21

Southern Hills RV Park, Hermosa, South Dakota

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ~ Genesis 27:41 I’m not sure what ‘days of mourning’ Esau is referring to. Isaac isn’t dead, nor is he dying. Remember, we learned the other day that Isaac continued to live an additional 40 years. Regardless, Esau’s heart has become so hard that he’s now willing to murder his brother. Esau has never had a heart towards God, and it shows the more we read about him. It seems strange to us that he would be Isaac’s favorite, but maybe Isaac has a fondness for ‘the underdog’. Maybe he believed that by showing abundant love to this lost son of his, that he could bring Esau around. Isn’t that what God does? He loves and grants mercy and forgiveness even to those who act like or claim to hate Him. “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt. 5:45) And yet, how many reject Him. This is Esau. No matter the good shown to him, his heart is never changed. At least not yet. God reveals to us that after many years, Esau and Jacob eventually reconcile. Both of them, although under God’s love and forgiveness, had to live the rest of their lives with the consequences of their ungodly decisions. As we all do.

Today is my baby brother’s birthday! Lance is ten full years younger than me. I used to tell him he was the worst birthday present I ever got, but he’s grown into a pretty great guy. 😊 Blaine and I celebrated by walking around a pile of dirt and bones, and ever so gently pushing our way through another herd of buffalo.

First, there was the town of Hot Springs. It’s down near the southern end of Custer State Park. At one time (late 1800’s to early 1900’s), it was well known for its mineral springs, and you can still see evidence of that. However, the main claim to fame today is the Mammoth Dig Site; and that’s the main reason for us being here.

We took the time to walk around the town first, and deemed it much more enjoyable than Keystone (over by Mt Rushmore). This town also boasts some historic buildings, but is much less commercialized and quiet.

This old jail stands next to the Visitor Center. Some interesting information – some not quite so interesting.
You can decide which is which. : )

We could see the wire between the wooden slats.
In case you didn’t read about it, it made it much more difficult to break into/out of.

The Visitor Center is inside this old train depot. I don’t know why we didn’t take a picture of the building . . .

One of the springs you can taste as you walk along the sidewalk. I tried it.
It was MUCH better than the last town we did that in! No sulphur or iron taste.

This is also one of their springs,
but we didn’t try this one.

There’s a little creek that runs through town.
We thought it looked (and sounded) nice. : )

This was a movie theater back in the day.

A little more walking and we spied some steps. About 150 of them, and ended up at the Veterans Hospital, where a security officer stopped us and became an unofficial tour guide full of information about the area. Nice guy! We couldn’t go in the place, but we walked around outside. Seems like a nice facility. At any rate, it’s a beautiful, historic building.

Back down on Main Street, we continued walking the town.
This place is now an “old folks” home.
some are veterans, but not all.
80% of the downtown buildings (cir. late 1800s – early 1900s)
were made from local sandstone quarried four miles away.

This was a school turned museum. We didn’t go in.
It’s filled with “pioneer” memorabilia, which we not only grew up with (via grandparents),
but have seen in many other museums.

We thought this place was closed, but then we saw the entrance and thought maybe it wasn’t.
In other words, we just don’t know. : )

A little more walking, and we were ready to drive over to the Mammoth Dig Site. This place came to be in 1974, when a guy ran a bulldozer over some ground he was planning to develop into housing. I’ll let the signs tell the rest of the story. As you look at the pictures though, keep in mind that this is still an active dig site! Very cool and fascinating place!

These six pages are from the guide book they give you.
I put them in just to give you a better idea of what you’re looking at.

This place inspires awe as soon as you walk through the door to the dig site!

See the guy working? Seems like difficult, tedious work to us!

They had this work room open for the public to see. There were two women in here.
How’d you like to work with people staring at you and taking pictures?

Check out the foot prints in the next picture under the green arrows.
I don’t know how they know that, but it’s pretty cool!

Isn’t it great that they have size comparisons?
I’ll bet kids – and grown ups like us! – really like that!

Such a sad state, that they went to get a drink and couldn’t get out. Good for us to find them and glean information from a time we know nothing about.

These are the bones they talk about in the previous picture.
Can you make it out?

When they talk about the weight “with cast” it’s because if they decide to remove a specimen for one reason or another, they put this plaster cast around the bones to protect their integrity. Sometimes they put the bones back into the site and clean them up, but sometimes they keep them removed and replace them with a replica. Most of the bones here are the real ones.

This is a replica based on what they’ve found here at the site.

This thing was microscopic! How in the world they picked it out of a pile of dirt, we’ll never know! They had several things like this displayed under microscope lens.

In another room, away from the actual dig site, they still had more displays to look at.

Even though we weren’t planning on a full-blown lunch today, the draw of a pit bbq drew us both in! You couldn’t escape the tantalizing smell, no matter where you went in town, so we indulged in a late lunch. It was every bit as delicious as it smelled! It seems they stay open until the food’s gone or people quit coming. As we waited in line, the smoked mac n cheese kept dwindling down until there were just three helpings left. We took two. It was good, but didn’t have a smoked flavor like we’d anticipated. I’ll bet my other brother, David could do it up right. 😊

Our lunch view. In the background is a water park. So what? All the water is supplied by mineral springs!

Stuffed to the gills, we walked part of the town trail, but not before we noticed the courthouse and jail right beside where we had lunch! The prisoners here don “candy cane” outfits, rather than the traditional orange jumpsuit. So weird to have them right there in the parking lot.

I did a quick selfie picture.
It seemed rude to just take a picture.

The lady in the Visitor Center had told us about a Jeep road we should check out. She said it was only suitable for four-wheel drive and just goes on and on, ‘turn around when you’re ready’. Sounded like a grand adventure to us! But it didn’t deliver as promised. We drove for a while, and we enjoyed the behind-the-scenes beauty of the area, but the road ended abruptly and before we were ready to turn around. In fact, we only drove a few miles. ☹

With extra time on our hands, and bellies so full from lunch there was no need to get back home for dinner, we took a leisurely drive through Custer State Park again, stopping at a different Visitor Center where we met Volunteer Donn. In the course of conversation, he told us about a ghost town that wasn’t on the map. We’ll be checking that out tomorrow!