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Agate is an internationally recognized fossil site. However, as a place,
Agate is so much more. The landscape surrounding the fossil beds has been
a site of change for millions of years. The relationship between land, weather,
ecology and mammals in the Agate area has been a stage of continual change
over time. Agate has also been a home to people like James Cook and his
wife, Kate; great leaders of great nations like Red Cloud and American Horse.
A place where people have lived, raised families and died. The record that
is preserved in this cultural landscape not only reflects the diverse history
of change and evolution, but also the struggles of existence in a region
with so many extremes. Agate is also a place of interaction, reflective
of both the natural and cultural realms. For Agate has been a meeting place
between weather and sediment; the exchange of ideas and memories between
cultures; and a site for present generations to make contact with the past.
It's a place where tangible reminders of these interactions are present
everyday. The weathering of sedimentary rock, bones becoming visible in
cliffs, and the gifts presented to James Cook by the Lakota Sioux are all
reflective of the strong natural and cultural relationships of the Agate
landscape.
As time passed, however, the climate became more arid. To the west, the
Rocky Mountains continued to rise, and the flow of moisture-laden air from
the west was interrupted. With less rain came plants that could survive
on less water. Drought became commonplace. Over the years streams dried
up and even the grasses withered. Water-dependent animals were drawn to
waterholes in the stream beds, and they congregated at these places between
periods of feeding on the diminishing vegetation. Large animals, such as
the rhinoceros and chalicothere Moropus, a distant relative of the horse,
were finally unable to travel far enough away to find fresh forage and died
in the shallow water of the few remaining ponds. Hundreds and thousands
of some species died, littering the area around and in the waterholes with
their remains. In time, the rains returned, the streams filled, and the
process of burial began. Silt, sand, and ash covered the remains, burying
them under several feet of wind- and stream-transported sediment.
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