KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and SportsThe Ice Age is coming back - kind of
ROCHESTER, MN (KTTC-DT) -- They're huge - enormous! - and once were on this earth. Now you have a chance to see them.
With the melting outside, it's hard to think Ice Age, nonetheless what the creatures that roamed then looked like.
But the Ice Age is coming back - at least to Quarry Hill Nature Center.
Pamela Meyer says, "This is like Christmas for us."
On Monday, Quarry Hill staff lent hands, but more so muscle power, as they unpacked five life-sized cast replicas of the Ice Age beasts that roamed our land, and started to assemble them.
They replicas come from the Black Hill's Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota.
And while this doesn't look much like a woolly mammoth right now, its finished skeleton will be a testament to how large of a creature it really was.
Pamela Meyer says, "They were huge! Mammoth is the perfect word and name for this animal because they are just mammoth. I mean, that's the thing that's really breathtaking is something this big walking the earth."
The Ice Age shaped our area. Bones are still found in our area, by everyday people. And this is a chance for everyday people to understand how majestic they were.
Already, kids were trying to get a sneak peek, watching the bones being pieced together.
Pamela Meyer says, "They go together like a big 3D jigsaw puzzle. And it takes a lot of hands, patience, and balance."
And much like a puzzle, they're being assembled without real instructions.
Larry Hutson, with the Black Hill's Institute says, "It's fun. It's a little bit frustrating when you put something up and then have to take it right back down again because they're heavy pieces."
But they all have to fit somewhere.
Larry says, "But as long as no one gets frustrated with the process, it is fun to see them go together and how they look when they're up there."
And in the end, you can only stand back, and be awed.
The exhibit runs from March 6th until April 4th at Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester.
It features prehistoric skeletons of the woolly mammoth, pygmy mammoth, mummified baby mammoth, saber tooth cat, and the giant ground sloth.
