The Waco Mammoth Site

Newly renovated national park that houses a mammoth dig site. The site has been recently upgraded from a tent to an enclosed building that shows mammoth fossils. Rangers walk you through the building (it’s fairly small) and explain the details of the site. Very interesting story about how the animals were found and what scientists think happened to the heard. Rangers are great with a lot of background information about the site, animal bones and what the planet was like during the last ice age. Well worth the admission charge if you have some free time in Waco.

On July 10^th, 2015 Waco Mammoth site became the 14^th unit of the National Park Service in Texas.
It all started as the result of a discovery in 1978. Today, for $ 5 you can take a guided tour of this paleontological site and see the nation’s only recorded discovery of a nursery herd of Columbian mammoths. The site is protected by a climate controlled building. You can see some of the original fossils from the dig «in situ». Which means they haven’t been removed from the site, and remain in the ground as they were uncovered. With the mammoths you can also see fossils of a camel.
Most of the fossil remains from the dig are in storage awaiting an opportunity to put on display, but for now it is still amazing to see original bones as they were found. You feel as if you have come across an active dig.
Tours are conducted throughout the day, so you just show up during opening hours and get placed in the next available group. You can purchase tour tickets from the small visitor center building located at the head of the trail by the parking lot. The visitor center has a small gift shop inside. The tour takes you steps down a paved path to the building that protects the dig. Our tour guide was friendly and informative. I would definitely take out of town visitors here again.

I really enjoyed this place. Take the guided tour and they give great insight and knowledge. It is now a national park so it’s kinda cool to be able to say you’ve been to one in Texas. They allow for digs as well if you call ahead

The guided tour was AWESOME! We toured with Lincoln and he was incredibly knowledgeable and excited about everything he showed us. Very highly recommended

I’ve waited too long to visit this wonderful place. There were not as many skeletons as I expected but enough to make it worthwhile. Guide was really good. Teachers get bored getting exactly the same written responses over and over so I try to stay away from asking the same stupid questions. He talked about glyptidonts (spelling?) living contemporaneously with Columbian mammoths. Hmmmm. Giant armadillo like animal… food source for early Americans? Turns out early inhabitants are recorded as using their shells as shelter. To me, that means they were a probable food source. Well worth the trip off of the I-​35.

Informative and well laid out Cool bit of dinosaur history in Texas! Very well done start! Hope they can get Historic recognition and an interest to dig! Fun stop in Waco!

$ 7 for a 10 minute visit. The building has 5 mammoths and a camel. They have tours but overall I thought it was way over priced for what you get. I expected more. It is neat and educational but all things you should know if you even have a little knowledge of archeology. Waste of money in my opinion but the Mayborn Museum in Waco is excellent and they have a mammoth.

Remember when Wilma used to vacuum with a baby mammoth? Yea, that’s not really conceivable. Even the babies are huge!
I guess I am easily entertained because I found this place fascinating. I grabbed a couple of coupons online before leaving California. If you look for them, you’ll most likely find them. Check the main website and the city visitor’s bureau. They happily redeemed them when we checked in. Our guide walked us through the grounds and informed us about the history of the site and their plans to expand.
Maybe it’s because nothing is old in California. Maybe it’s because we had an excellent tour guide. Maybe it’s because I saw a giant black mustache shaped caterpillar. Maybe it’s because the giant excavation area was air conditioned.
I loved it. It’s 73,000 year old living history. They left enough in tact to physically show you why & how they have proved what they know about the site.
Had we more time in Texas, I would have loved to have accentuated this stop with a visit to the Mayborn museum or Baylor University. From what I understand, that’s where the reconstruct & store the complete sets of fossils.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Family of four went thru and it was like dropping $ 24 to walk thru an aluminum barn. Yeah, I get it a couple mammoths were killed there by flood or otherwise but what am I spending my $ to see. I paid for a family of 4 to do it and I was told to walk the path and join that group that just started… got there and no one greeted us so I called and was told the tour guide was there and found out after the end of the call he just finished his tour. Must have lasted 20 minutes tops. I have to honestly say that if I had to stay inside the exhibit 5 minutes longer I would have died of boredom and became a part of this exhibit. It’s extremely small and unless you are a paleontologist you and yours will most likely be bored beyond belief.

Waco may be small, but it does have its attractions. At this spot they’ve unearthed over twenty mammoths and other species, some of which are still here in the dirt housed by a large metal building. I was skeptical at first about paying $ 7 to walk around a large shed, but the nearly hour long tour by a guide who was both knowledgeable and invested made it entirely worth it, and I liked the idea that I was supporting further excavation, which seems to have reached a monetary impasse.

What a really neat place! Texas history from about 50,000 years ago. No cowboys around back then! Well spent $ 7 guided tour. Only 5 people in our group so guide had time to answer all our questions. Only there about an hour so it was a really enjoyable side trip.

BEST $ 7 I paid for in Waco, so much better than the Dr Pepper museum. This should be on everyone’s to do list if you are in Waco. It was educational and the money you spend here will help discovering more ancient treasures.
My only complaint is I wish they had more stuff for their gift shop, I couldn’t find anything I like.

Worthwhile if slightly expensive ($ 7 for adults) visit. You have to wait for the guided tour to start for this museum, or you will miss most of the appeal. The guides provide a pretty good description of the size and prevalence of the mammoths in the area some 60,000 years ago. Christian fundamentalists who don’t believe that the world is older than 4,000 years — cover your ears. There is a short walk to the dig site which is enclosed in a modern building to protect the bones. From the walkway, you can see the dig site as it currently sits — the scientists ran out of money about ten years ago to complete the dig, so you can see their work in progress and the bones assembled as the mammoths died. Very cool.
I will say that a visit here is only about an hour of edu-​tainment; but it’s an hour very well spent.

Hands down the coolest «museum» I’ve ever seen. It’s only one large room, but it is an active dig site. They are slowly unearthing giant herd of Mammoth that roamed the area 50−60K years ago… it was literally jaw dropping to me and my kids. The bones aren’t even fossilized… they are still raw bone, very fragile. You can see these were beautiful majestic creatures. Great knowledgeable tour guides. Well worth a couple of hours.

This was a spur of the moment trip because we were in Texas to visity family and my brother-​in-​law said he’d recently heard from a friend this was a neat place plus we like this kind of stuff. Columbian Mammoth bones were found here in the 1970’s and students from Baylor have since been using the site for digs. A building was recently erected over the bulk of the bones, there is a gift shop and a beautiful trail system in a lovely park like setting with large Oak trees and nice picnic areas. A volunteer led our tour who was very knowledgeable, genuinely friendly, and passionate about what she was showing us. My daughters, especially my 7 year old, were really interested in the digs and the rest of us really enjoyed learning the history of the site. Great murals depicting scenes from the time of the mammoths. We could spend an entire day here just hanging out and playing but, as it was, only spent a couple of hours due to our schedule. Bring your own food, not much of selecton at the gift store and not close to any restaurants.