Thursday’s Journal

Thursday’s Journal

Journal Crew: Kaylee Dorn, Trent Hanson, AJ Horton, Kristy Fyhrie, Amber Guenther, Lacey Carlson, Melany Arceneau

Uncle Sue's Autograph

WIND CAVE: We went to wind cave, the fourth longest cave in the world at apx., 128 miles long. There is only one natural entrance to this cave which is about 2’ by 1’ wide. Since this opening to the cave is too small for most people to fit in they made a man made revolving door to get in. The revolving door helps keep the pressure normal inside the cave. There are little honeycomb shaped structures on some pieces of the ceiling in the cave called box work, as you will see in some of the pictures. 95% of the worlds box work exists in wind cave.

Later on in the day we went out hiking at wind cave national park. Our goal was to pretend that we were little rain drops and we were to explain how we got down into the cave. This also helped us figure out how the cave was formed. On the hike we were excited by the sight of the skeleton of a dead bison.

BLACK HILLS GEOLOGY CENTER: For our second stop of the day we got to go back stage to see how the people their uncover fossils. In some cases they sell the fossils of the dinosaurs so they have to create molds of the bones so they can keep records of them. Neil Larson was one of the two men who started the museum. If you ever want to see someone who truly enjoys his job come meet Neil. He talked to us for about half an hour. We talked about the different kinds of dinosaurs and how and when they were found. In the year 1990 Neil uncovered Sue, (most complete T Rex at the time.) Now Sue is in the museum in Chicago.

HOT SRINGS: Later on in the day, as a treat, we were given the opportunity to go swim at hot springs . Although it wasn’t very warm it was a special treat for those of us who decided to go. We jumped off the cliff. Patrick Schuette, a college chaperone, decided to slide down a part of the water fall and the rock was a little jagged. Some of the boys decided to follow. As one of them quoted, “Patrick you may make a good science teacher, but not a very good swimming one.” It was a lot of fun even though it was cold.

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