The little town of Hot Springs, in the south of the Black Hills, has long been a popular tourist resort thanks to the mineral springs, whose qualities were already known to the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. The springs now supply Evans Plunge, the world's largest natural warm-water indoor pool.
Hot Springs hit the international headlines in 1974,
when during building operations on the outskirts of the town the remains of mammoths were found. Some 26,000 years ago it lay on the edge of a steep-sided sinkhole some 80 ft deep filled with water from a hot spring, whose luxuriant vegetation, even during the Ice Age, attracted the mammoths that lived in this region. Many of these heavy creatures, standing up to 13 ft high, tumbled over the edge of the hole or sank into the soft soil. Painstaking work on the site has brought to light the remains of some four dozen Columbus mammoths. These and other finds are on display.
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