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Discovering the Ichthyosaur
Nevadans take great pride in things that might seem a bit odd to non-dwellers. For example, we celebrate the anniversary of our statehood—Nevada Day—as an official public holiday, complete with an old-fashioned parade in Carson City. We will brag about the unsinkable battleship USS Nevada, the only vessel to get under way during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mark Twain’s first byline was in a Nevada newspaper, and we have more named mountain ranges than any other state.
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Ice Age Fossils State Park
Depending how you frame it, the creation of Ice Age Fossils State Park was either decades or millennia in the making. One could say the park began in 2017, when former governor Brian Sandoval designated it a state park, or in 1958, when the land was acquired by the Nevada State Parks. Perhaps the park really began tens of thousands of years ago during the Pleistocene Ice Age, when ancient animals roamed the lush Tule Springs area of southern Nevada.
Today, the 315-acre park preserves thousands of fossilized remains, including Columbian mammoths, bison, saber-toothed cats, American lions, dire wolves, and giant sloths.