Education specialist Julie Johndreau says, "When fossils will be uncovered and when discoveries will be made, well, that's the mystery of it when you're dealing with paleontology."  Paleontologist Rachel Benton says, "There appears to be quite a collection of fossils here at this one site. So I think it will keep us busy over the next three years."  The new site is located adjacent to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, where a saber tooth cat skull was found just two years ago by a 7 year old girl visiting from Georgia.  Scientists say that for every hour spent outside six hours are spent in the lab.  Where park visitors are encouraged to come and watch them dig up history.  Benton says, "They're preparing fossils that have been collected in the park and that's a very slow, careful kind of process, and once the fossils are prepared they'll be stored in the park museum."  It's just another way to draw in tourists and get them interested in the history of South Dakota.  Johndreau says, "We're really excited! We're really excited because it's an interesting fossil site and we're really excited because it's right here next to the visitor center so, so many people will get to visit it."  And those visitors can watch history in the making from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily this summer.

Darren Leeds