SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Dakotadon discovery makes history in the Black Hills of South Dakota
This week in South Dakota history: May 15-21
South Dakota further cemented its place in dinosaur fossil lore with the discovery of the Dakotadon lakotaensis a half century ago.
According to the May 21, 1976, Mitchell Daily Republic, the rare fossil that’d been unearthed during a rattlesnake hunt in the Black Hills now awaited further examination at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology,
Found in the hills above the Whitewood Valley near Sturgis, the one-of-a-kind discovery would help researchers better understand dinosaurs and gain a unique identity honoring the state and those who came before it.
Louis Rossow came across the fossil hunting for a rattlesnake in the hills near his Whitewood Valley home when he noticed bones protruding from the side of a sandstone cliff.
