In October 2010, a bulldozer working near Snowmass unearthed the tusk of a female mammoth. Spurred by this unusual discovery, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science moved in for the next 10 months to conduct its largest-ever fossil excavation, resulting in the discovery of some 36,000 bones from 52 different Ice Age animals (including camels, sloths and mastodons – distant relatives of the mammoths).

　　Five years later, the fossils were still being unpacked in Denver, but in the interim Snowmass set up this small discovery center with replica skulls and bones staffed by a paleontologist five days a week. Ground has been broken for a new museum close to the Snowmass gondola; it's projected to open in 2019.