The Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed site, officially named the Hudson-Meng Education and Research Center, is a fossil site located in the Oglala National Grassland of

Sioux County, Nebraska Sioux County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 1,311. Its county seat is Harrison. Sioux County is included in the Scottsbluff, NE Micropolitan Statistical Area. In the Nebrask ...

20 miles northwest of Crawford. It contains the 10,000-year-old remains of up to 600

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...

."Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed".Fossil Freeway.
Retrieved 2010-10-31. Open seasonally, the site features a visitor center with interpretive exhibits and views of the bones. Guided tours are available. The Bison Trail to

Toadstool Geologic Park Toadstool Geologic Park is located in the Oglala National Grassland in far northwestern Nebraska. It is operated by the United States Forest Service. It contains a badlands landscape and a reconstructed sod house. The park is named after its ...

is a 3-mile hike. Hudson-Meng2

History

Bill Hudson and Albert Meng were local ranchers who are credited with discovering the bonebed in 1954 while digging for a pond. Originally excavated by Dr. Larry Agenbroad in the 1970s, the dig was over 400 square meters and was considered the largest Alberta Culture bison kill site ever discovered. The bison found are not the same species as the bison that currently live in the United States (''

Bison bison The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the ...

''), but are an animal transitional in evolution between the extinct ''

Bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

'' and the modern species. In the 1990s, the site underwent another series of excavations by Drs. Larry Todd of

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado S ...

and David Rapson of the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

, who determined that the bison died of unknown natural causes and that the site was not in fact a kill site. In 2005, PaleoCultural Research Group and the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

undertook excavations at the site. In 2006, the USFS made Dr. Mark Muñiz of

St. Cloud State University St. Cloud State University (SCSU) is a public university in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Founded in 1869, the university is one of the largest institutions in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Its enrollment in 2020 was approximatel ...

the principal investigator for archeological research. The research since 2006 has uncovered an Eden component at the site in addition to the Alberta component. The site was managed for two years by

The Mammoth Site The Mammoth Site is a museum and paleontological site near Hot Springs, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. It is an active paleontological excavation site at which research and excavations are continuing. The facility encloses a prehistoric sink ...

of Hot Springs, South Dakota under the supervision of the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Nationa ...

. As of 2009, the site is managed by the US Forest Service out of

Chadron, Nebraska Chadron ( ) is a city and the county seat of Dawes County, in the state of Nebraska in the Great Plains region of the United States. The population was 5,851 at the 2010 census. This city is the location of Chadron State College. Chadron also ...

References

External links

Hudson-Meng Education & Research Center
- US Forest Service

* ttps://archive.today/20121211160544/http://lamar.colostate.edu/~lctodd/hmsmry.htm Summary of Recent Fieldwork at the Hudson-Meng Site- by L. C. Todd and D. J. Rapson, 1991–1998 {{authority control Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Cenozoic paleontological sites of North America Federal lands in Nebraska Pre-statehood history of Nebraska Museums in Sioux County, Nebraska Natural history museums in Nebraska Buffalo jumps Paleontology in Nebraska United States Forest Service protected areas Protected areas of Sioux County, Nebraska National Register of Historic Places in Sioux County, Nebraska Fossil parks in the United States