Daemonelix in the phone booth

Stretching between I-90 in the north to I-80 in the south is Fossil Freeway, a one-of-a-kind highway corridor between Nebraska's Panhandle and The Black Hills in South Dakota. Along the route are exceptional sites which exhibit rare and remarkable treasures from the prehistoric past. Scotts Bluff anchors the route at the southern end and next in line, traveling north, is Agate Fossil Beds National Monument where we went today. 

On a ranch that once belonged to James H. Cook, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument has produced some of the finest fossils of the Miocene Epoch, 23 - 19 million-years-ago. An abundance of mammals peaked in the Miocene Epoch and many animals developed features recognizable in some species today. Treeless plains expanded in North America and many mammals adapted for prairie life by becoming grazers, runners, or burrowers. 

This is not a fossil but a Bull Snake that visited our campsite this morning. Harmless.

On our drive to Agate Fossil Beds we took the Scenic Byway through Fort Robinson State Park and caught up with the bison that we could only see from a distance yesterday. Today, in the car, we enjoyed seeing the new bison calves and their mommas. They are in the background, a bull is in the front.

Ribbon of highway on our 40 mile drive to Agate.

Visitor Center at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Two tipis are displayed in front, the larger tipi is the Crow style while the smaller tipi is Sioux. 

Meet Alvis Mar. There were not large crowds at Agate so when we came in Alvis jumped up to give us a personalized tour of the fossil exhibits. 

About 19-20 million years ago drought struck the western Nebraska plains. Deprived of food, hundreds of animals died around a few shallow water holes. Over time their skeletons were buried in the silt, fine sand, and volcanic ash. An ancient waterhole with hundreds of fossilized skeletons is the focus of the Agate Fossil Beds. 

Fossil exhibit in the Visitor Center. 

Moropus was quite fantastic. Related to both the horse and rhinoceros, it was large, had back legs shorter than the front, with great claw-like hooves. 

The larger skelton in the back is the three-toed, pony-sized rhinoceroses Menacers, the most common mammal in the bone-bed. In the front is the fossil of Daphoenodon, beardog, a carnivore that is different from the earliest true dogs. It eventually went extinct.

Beardogs, the largest carnivores in existence 19 million years ago, lived in dens that were burrowed underground.  

Bonebed found at the ancient Agate waterhole.

A chunk of rock showing how the fossils were found at the waterhole.

We took the Fossil Hills Trail up to the two hills, University Hill on the right and Carnegie Hill on the  left, where a number of quarries were excavated from the Miocene Epoch. 

A beardog, two Daeodon ("terrible hog") and three Moropus meet at a waterhole.

Two different sized rhinoceros, the smaller, Menoceras, is the most common mammal in the bonebed.

Daeodon, terrible hog, had bone-crushing teeth is not related to modern pigs.

The fossils were quarried from the sides of these hills.

On the way down the trail we took a short trip over to the Bone Cabin originally built in 1908 and... 

it was used from about 1914 to 1923 by paleontologists working at the fossil beds.

On the way to the cabin we noticed this bench that was seemingly randomly placed in the middle the prairie.

Turns out it is at the burial site of James Cook. A frontiersman, hunter, and scout before he settled on the Agate Springs Ranch and encouraged paleontologists to explore the "stone bones" that he discovered on his ranch. Most of the land that is now Agate Fossil Beds National Monument was once part of the Agate Springs Ranch.

The Bone Cabin.

When we got back from our hike it was just 4 p.m., closing time for the Visitor Center, but since we hadn't seen the Cook Collection of Indian artifacts, we begged to be let in. Do these folks look like they would turn anyone away?!! Absolutely not, so in we went and got another personalized tour to boot!

(Anne is the woman on the left and, I have to apologize, I do to remember the name of the gentleman on the right even though he gave us a great tour of the Cook Collection and he was raised in Salem, MA)

James Cook first met Chief Red Cloud in 1874 when Yale University Professor Othniel C. Marsh came to western Nebraska looking for fossils. The Oglala Lakota (Sioux) were suspicious of Marsh, because most white men they knew were gold seekers. But "Captain" Cook helped convince Red Cloud and the other Oglala that Marsh was what he said he was, a bone hunter.

Over the years Cook often helped the Oglala and Cheyenne. A steadfast friendship grew up between the Cook family and the Indians who brought gifts and told them stories about individual items. The family's collection now belongs to the park.

These moccasins were fashioned as gifts for Cook's family.

Red Cloud's wife, Good Road, wore this dress made from three tanned elk hides. 

Three generations of the Red Cloud family used these pipe bags. The oldest and rarest (left) belonged to Red Cloud's father. The tabs and symbols identify it as the bag of a chief or spiritual leader. Red Cloud carried the pipe bag in the center. The pipe bag (right), made of a single piece of tanned leather, belonged to Red Cloud's son, Jack Red Cloud.

American Horse honored James Cook by presenting him with his war club, a formidable weapon carved from soapstone and a strong wood handle lashed with rawhide. American Horse had used the club in the Battle of the Hundred Slain, also known the Fetterman Fight.

The label on this item reads - This Red Whetstone was carried by Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, when he was bayoneted by soldiers at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and was given to James H. Cook by Crazy Horse's sister, who helped to bury him. It was the only thing she had left, which belonged to Crazy Horse and she wanted my father, James H. Cook, to have it, and preserve it, in memory of the old Chief.   Harold S. Cook

Painting made of Red Cloud at Agate Spring Ranch. Red Cloud later wrote to James Cook - My son Jack... would like to see the Painting that you had made of me in your room many years ago,... I want you to always own and keep that picture - so long as you live and the let your oldest son have it to keep. Then I am sure my children and their children can always go and look at the face of one of the last of the old Chiefs that lived before the white men came to take our lands and turn us from the old trails.... I think my People will always find a true friend and I want them to listen to your words of counsel. 

The shirt that Red Cloud is wearing in the painting, above.

As we were leaving the Agate Fossil Beds we had one more trail to take to see the fossilized, spiral burrows of the ancient Paleocastor.  You may remember that le castor is French for beaver and we have referred to beavers many times before in this blog. Although anatomically related to modern beavers, Paleocastor behaved more like modern prairie dogs. 

A picture of one of the fossilized Palaeocastor burrows, also know as Daemonelix, Devil's Corkscrew. Paleontologists originally thought these were the roots of some ancient plant.

At least six prominent Corkscrews show up in the side of this cliff. The two right in the middle of the picture are the easiest to see.

Palaeocastor and burrow. The bottom of the corkscrew opens into a nesting chamber tilted upward to prevent the accumulation of water.

A fossile burrow protected by a phone booth.

W. H. Utterback of the Carnegie Museum excavating a Daemonelix (Devil's Corkscrew).

From the top of the trail a view of the Agate Springs Ranch which is still operated by the Cook Family.