In 2004, a National Park Service (NPS) worker found the entrance to a cave in South Dakota’s Wind Cave National Park. Although researchers believe that the cave could be incredibly old and deep, the location of the entrance has been kept secret for more than a decade. Even today, with excavation of the cave’s sediments underway, the location remains a closely guarded secret.
The secrecy has kept amateur spelunkers and other adventure seekers away and allowed the NPS to mount a proper, scientific excavation of the site. Already the exploration has yielded hundreds of bones dating back as far as 11,000 years. Included in the haul are the bones of three living species not previously known to live in the region.
Bones of the pika, which lives in cool mountain climates, as well as the platygonus, an extinct relative of the peccary and pine martin have come from the cave entrance with much left to excavate.
East Tennessee State University professor Jim Mead, the leader of the excavation, told the Washington Post that he expects to find 100,000 bones before the end of the summer.
Because of the direction and speed of winds coming from the cave entrance, researchers believe that it could be very deep. It could even connect, through a blocked or unexplored passage, to Wind Cave one-third of a mile away.
Once a sufficient amount of sediment has been removed, the NPS will send a team of professional spelunkers to explore deeper within the newly discovered cave.
Bones and fossils discovered within the cave will be compared to those found at the Mammoth site. Discovered in 1974 in nearby Hot Springs South Dakota, the Mammoth Site is another treasure trove of ancient bones and fossils.
The site of a cavern collapse that occurred 26,000 years ago, the Mammoth site contains the remains of a wide range of species in addition to mammoths. To date, American camel, llama, wolf, coyote, giant short faced bears, birds, a variety of rodents and invertebrates such as snails, clams and slugs have been found there.
By comparing the remains found at the two sites, researchers can start to paint a picture of the recent climate and environmental history of the region.
“In reconstructing the past environments of the Black Hills, it’s nice to have a number of different points. What we’re trying to do, centered through the Mammoth site, is to understand essentially the Ice Age environmental change through time,” said Mead.
Wind Cave has long been known to Native American groups, some of whom considered it sacred. The first non-Natives to find the cave were Jesse and Tom Bingham in 1881. From there the cave became an unsuccessful mine, then a privately owned tourist attraction and a game preserve before being established as a national park in 1935.
Although many important discoveries have been made in the region, the primary focus of the park continues to lie in its role as an ecological preserve.
