Our tour guide was terrific. We were a small group making the tour on a Monday morning. The walking is on rough ground. Wheelchairs should take extra precaution or those walking with some assistants. We did see two guys actually at work on the main dig where they had discovered a female tapir that was pregnant. Lots of tapirs have been discovered along with turtles, elephants, and can you believe an alligator!

In the back of the site were large vats and sieves for sifting out fossils and cleaning.

Tour groups are given a chance to help spot fossils. We had two small children in our group and the little boy found the fossil of a young predator. The found fossils are taken back to the lab and tagged with the location where it was found.

The area of the fossil site has a chain link fence around it because on the outside is the Martin-Fulkerson Land. In fact there is a sign where people can go and dig on the Fulkerson land.

As I said before, this very land is located on the west side of Buffalo Ridge District on land that was originally owned by Jesse Hunt who came there from Virginia in 1780. Peter Barry also owned land there in the early 1800's. Over the years the land owned by Jesse's son Samuel M. Hunt was sold after his death to the Madens who lived there as well as the John Calhoun Martin family. The Peter Barry house was bought by Henry A. Martin. Later the Martin and Hunt family intermarried. On a hill not far from the site is the Hunt-Martin Family Cemetery where members of the two families are buried. The present owner Fulkerson is an extension of the Martin family.

Natural History Museum Visitor Center & Gray Fossil Site