The Big Pig Dig: Integrating Paleontological Research and Visitor Education at Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Abstract

A paleontological field discovery known as the Big Pig Dig has developed into a significant visitor education and research site. Between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors stop by the site each summer. The site contains many visitor facilities, including a site shelter, wayside exhibit, site bulletin, demonstration casts and a visitor interpretation program. These are useful tools for communicating to the public, the importance of protecting paleontological sites and promoting paleontological research. Site excavation, documentation and visitor interpretation, are completed by park staff and geology students enrolled at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and other Universities around the United States. The namesake for the site, an ancient pig-like mammal called Archaeotherium, is preserved along with horn-less rhinoceros, the three-toed horse and several other early mammals. Both paleontological and sedimentological evidence indicates that the Pig Dig was a watering hole. The site has provided a significant amount of information on a unique depositional environment preserved within the Oligocene White River Badlands of western South Dakota.