Turning the Corner--TRIP 3 (2012)

A crushed stone path leads uphill to the fossil beds.

An hour to the north out of Scotts Bluff we stopped at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. A mile-long walk along the crushed red rock trail took us up to the outcroppings of limestone where most of the fossils had been found.

The daemonelix, a spiral
burrow, shows evidence
of thriving life in the past.

                 At three sites along the trail we saw the fossilized spiral burrows of the ancient Paleocastor, a burrowing rodent, related to modern beavers, that behaved more like modern prairie dogs. Although early scientists argued that the daemonelix must have been produced by tree or shrub roots, Olaf Peterson in 1904 discovered a small gopher-like fossil skeleton in what appeared to be a chamber split off from the bottom of the burrow.  It was all the evidence the scientific community needed.
Plants along the trail were marked clearly with metal signs, but even though for once we could read the signs, we couldn't tell one plant from another. Everything was tinder dry and burned out from the sun.

This arid plain, once a wetlands, teemed with life now extinct..

As we walked uphill on the Daemonelix Trail, three pronghorn antelope climbed the slope in the distance and disappeared over the ridge. On our return circle a cottontail scampered across the path ahead of us. Even though a bright morning sun beat down, the air was cool and a brisk wind out of the northwest made us glad to have sweatshirts.
The Visitor Center, a few miles down the road, had a three-mile concrete walk to University Hill and Carnegie Hill, the sites of fossil discoveries from the Miocene Period, about 19 million years ago. We watched the video to learn a little about the history of the region and chatted with Ranger Lil for background about James Cook and his friendship with Lakota Chief Red Cloud around the turn of the 20th century. She encouraged us to spend some time in the Cook Museum to see some of the treasured Indian items Red Cloud and the Lakotas had given to Cook and his family as gifts. "It was also probably Red Cloud's way of preserving a little of the Lakota heritage," she explained. "Their friendship lasted some 40 years until Red Cloud's death in 1909."

Bones from the Agate Fossil Beds recreate past life in the
National Monument museum.

In the museum we saw the chief's beaded shirt and moccasins, outstanding representations of Plains Indian culture, which Red Cloud gave to James Cook during his last visit at the ranch. Mutual respect brought together two cultures and allowed one to help preserve the other.
Ironically, the story of James Cook and the story of Red Cloud are tied together through fossils.
Ranger Lil explained how Red Cloud refused university scientists the right to search for ancient bones in the Black Hills around 1874. He thought the scientists, particularly Professor Othniel C. Marsh from Yale University, were miners who would destroy the grounds so sacred to the Lakota Sioux Indians. James Cook, who knew sign language, explained to Red Cloud that the scientists really did want to dig for bones. The two became fast friends.
Ranger Lil told us that one of the scientists had two lovely daughters. James eventually married Kate and they bought the ranch at Agate Springs from her parents in 1887. They had discovered the first bones sticking out of the side of the hill a few years before.
In August of 1904, Peterson of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh discovered the great bonebed with the help of Harold J. Cook, himself a paleontologist and son of James and Kate.

By invitation of James Cook,
Lakota Chief Red Cloud brought his
people to Agate Springs Ranch.

When Red Cloud's tribe settled onto the reservation at Pine Ridge, they came down yearly with special permission from the government to camp at James Cook's Agate Spring Ranch in the valley of the Niobrara River. They set up tepees and shared ancient stories. A week-long journey of 150 miles, it was like summer vacation for Red Cloud and his people.
Ranger Lil also told us how the early paleontologists cut huge blocks of stone from the hillsides to haul them back to museums. "Today fossils are studied in the context in which they were found," she said.  We read that 30 million species of animals and plants now inhabit the Earth. But scientists think about 100 species will become extinct every day, a rate accelerated by human actions.
The Fossil Hills Trail took us through three miles of shortgrass prairie, where grasses are all less than two feet tall and precipitation measures 10 to 21 inches per year.  The displays explained the area, now about 4400 feet above sea level on a bench or terrace that had been formed by the ancient Niobrara River. The river meandered across the valley in the past. At the lowest point a small stream and wetlands are all that remain here now.  We saw the bright green jointed stalks of the horsetail or smooth scouring rush, a plant that evolved about 350 million years ago and hasn't changed much since, and the fuzzy tops of cattails.
Shallow depressions along the trail could have been old buffalo wallows where bison dusted themselves.
Far up the hills, display signs pointed out four distinct layers of sedimentary rock at University Hill and Carnegie Hill, named for the organizations that claimed fossil finds here--University of Nebraska and Carnegie Museum. Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History also played significant roles. One prominent layer on the hillside contains strata that were contorted by the footprints of animals walking across the drying water hole 19 million years ago.
Paleontologists have concluded that the sedimentary rocks were formed in an ancient water hole. The theory explains the small-scale structures in the strata, the accumulation of bones--as many as 600 skeletons of an ancient small rhinoceros--footprints, microfossils and other details. Inclined strata within the layers of sandstone indicate the flowing water of a stream, which helps to explain that the water hole dried up and was eventually buried by stream sediment.

Rolling hillsides of sandy soil dotted with trees
dominate the landscape in northwestern Nebraska.

North America's climate became cooler and drier as volcanic activity in the western United States produced enormous amounts of volcanic ash that was blown eastward and as the Rocky Mountains grew in height. Many animals that thrived on the Plains of Western Nebraska depended on the moderate climate for survival. Their numbers had expanded to the capacity of food available. As the Rockies rose and blocked the flow of moisture-laden air from the west, the climate here grew more arid.  Hundred, probably thousands, of some species died and littered the area in and around water holes with their remains. Most decayed or dried out. But in time, the rains returned, the streams filled and burial began. Silt, sand and ash covered the remains, burying them under several feet of wind-transported and stream-transported sediment.
Ironic how the land is now tinder dry, so unlike it had been when animals thrived near the water hole but also unlike the desiccation of that age.  In the museum I read that the water hole of ancient times must have been similar to watering holes on the African Serengeti Plain today. As land dries, animals gather near water. They eat the grass farther and farther away from the water until no grass remains. Suffering from malnutrition and starvation, they return to the cool mud of the watering hole to die. It seemed a credible theory based on living evidence in Africa today.  But instead of lions, hyenas and hippos, the animal skeletons from 19 million years ago were beardogs, menoceras rhinos and six-foot scavenger entelodonts.
At 1:25 p.m. in Harrison, Nebraska, a town of 251 people, we made the turn East. "Now we are headed home," said Andy. "Every night from now on we will be getting closer and closer to home."

Although dryness prevails everywhere,
outside of Chadron, Nebraska the land
supports more trees.
 

The landscape was light sandy brown in every direction. "This is usually green," said Andy. "I think Nebraska was the worst hit state for drought with the greatest percentage of severe conditions."
We probably would have gone to Toadstool, an area of Badlands with mushroom formations, but it was 14 miles up a washboard dirt road. "I'm not driving on this," said Andy, turning Little Red around. Later he told me he had read that the drought here was worse than the Dust Bowl days of the 1930's. "Of course, farming techniques have improved," he said, "so blowing topsoil isn't so much a problem, but Nebraska has actually seen less precipitation than during the Dust Bowl."
As the sun sank lower at 4:30 p.m., we spotted small groups of mule deer near the road by several ranches and a flock of turkeys under some pine trees. We were higher and the landscape had changed. Still very dry, the elevation and probably slightly increased rainfall allowed some ponderosa pine trees to grow.
Chadron has 5634 people and a Walmart. "That has to suck out the life of the whole town," said Andy.
"Or employ all of them," I added.
"How could such a small town support a Walmart?" he wondered out loud.
We soon found out. Chadron is home to Chadron State College and a community college, as well.