Recently my wife and I visited the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument for the second time. Hagerman has been a National Monument since 1988. The first time we visited was in 2007 exactly 17 years prior to our latest visit to the southcentral Idaho attraction. Some changes have been made to the location and content of the visitor center, but the secular interpretations of the fossils have not changed much at all. In 2007 the fossil exhibits were located in a small building in downtown Hagerman. In 2022 a new visitor center was opened that combines the Hagerman Fossil Beds displays with the headquarters for the Thousand Springs Idaho State Park. Figure 1 is a map of the area; Figure 2 is a photo of the new building.
Figure 1. Hagerman Fossil Beds Area Map
Figure 2. Thousand Springs Visitor Center
The highlight of the Hagerman Fossil Beds has always been the fossils of the Hagerman horse (Equus simplicidens), thought to have lived 3 to 4 million years ago according to the secular geologic timeline. The fossils were made known to experts by a local rancher by the name of Elmer Cook, and in 1929 paleontologists from the Smithsonian Institution made the first scientific excavations near Hagerman. The usual secular explanations for the fossils have always been made by the Hagerman displays as being the result of slow processes over deep time. There are a couple of layman secular sources I am aware of for the horse fossils and the geology of the area, and I have listed them at the end of this article for those wanting to dig deeper into the evidence. For a biblical creationist interpretation of ancient pre-Flood horses see chapter 14 of my book Discovering the Animals of Ancient Oregon.
Figure 3. Display of Hagerman Horse Skeleton at New Thousands Springs State Park Visitor Center
Figure 4. Panoramic View of Hagerman Fossil Beds Area and the Snake River.
In my book The Creation Dialogues I have written a great deal about how evolutionists sell their story of evolution over millions of years using the ISF (Interpretations Stated as Facts) technique. This is where, based upon atheistic evolutionary presuppositions, various Interpretations are Stated as if they are actually Facts. The National Park Service is among the institutions that use this technique to sell evolution and millions of years, and it is clearly seen at the Hagerman Fossil Beds interpretive center. Next, let us look at some of these ISF examples by looking at some of the photos I took of interpretive signs at the center during my latest visit there.
Figure 5. Geologic Timeline Chart.
In Figure 5 is a photo of the secular Geologic Timeline chart that is located at the entrance to the fossil displays at Hagerman. This chart is always stated by evolutionists as a factual representation of how the fossils in the rocks were formed and how they can tell time. Over the past 20 years I have written and stated many times that the Geologic Timeline is not a fact but is rather an abstraction of a philosophical idea. It is an interpretation based on the presuppositions of evolution and millions of years. At the top of the chart can be seen the time period called the Pliocene epoch. From this chart all other mentions of time for Hagerman fossils and geology by secular paleontologists are derived. That is, the fact that the Pliocene can be seen and located on this chart is sufficient evidence for the veracity of all subsequent discussions about the age of the any fossils found at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.
Unfortunately, acceptance of this chart as factual precludes the possibility of accepting any contrary batch of presuppositions such as the truth of the Bible and its historical story of a global Flood at the time of Noah. Using these biblical presuppositions allows for a true understanding for how the fossils got into the rocks as a result of the one-year-long cataclysmic global Flood. The possibility of a global Flood is never allowed to be discussed at any National Park location. It is the one thought that is never permitted to be considered at Hagerman or any other secular educational venue.
Figure 6. ISF Panel at Hagerman Fossil Beds Visitor Center.
The acceptance of the Geologic Timeline results in interpretations based on philosophical ideas of deep time. The men like Hutton, Playfair, and Lyell upon which today’s secular paleontologists and geologists base their uniformitarian stories, like the one asserted in Figure 6, were not there at the time these fossils were formed. They just imagined millions of years. If there really was a cataclysmic Flood 4500 years ago it would better explain the rapid burial of fossil bones in the many bone jumbles in places like Hagerman. Prior to the Flood there could have been horse-like species of animals with various numbers of toes. What is hard to imagine is how complete skeletons of Hagerman horses could have been buried by rivers, lakes or bogs as proposed by evolutionists. The macroevolution of one kind of life form to another kind of life form is not seen today and is only imagined by evolutionists as having occurred in the past.
Figure 7. ISF Display at Hagerman Fossil Beds.
In my experience a more accurate explanation for “preservation bias” than that defended in Figure 7 would be that hard parts such as bones, teeth, and claws are most likely to be preserved as fossils. If preservation bias was based on the conditions stated in Figure 7, the earth’s surface should be covered in fossils, but it definitely is not! Again, the fossils found in the rock record are much better explained by the global Flood.
In order to estimate the percentage of species that have become fossils wouldn’t one need to know how many species there ever were? Who knows this other than God? I have no idea how the figure of 0.001% was arrived at. This can only be considered as pure evolutionary speculation. Notice that the figure is not even stated as an approximation. Most paleontologists I have read would say that examples of most of the different kinds of fossils in the rocks have indeed been recovered.
While we were at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument visitor center in 2024, we were able to watch a video about the monument with the title, “A Window into the Past.” I have inserted this video below and I encourage you to watch it. It does an excellent job of depicting what the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument consists of and what it looks like. But this video was also prepared by the National Park Service as a propaganda tool with a purpose of indoctrinating the public into the secular interpretation of origins. It is just over 20 minutes long, and I ask you to watch it looking for all of the evolutionary ISF mentions that are included. Below the video in this article, you will be able to find a section of my comments about the video noted with the time from the beginning of the video. Perhaps you would want to first print out my comment section to use to follow along as you watch the video.
J.D. Mitchell’s Comments for the video:
3:03-Notice the mention of the three complete skeletons of the Hagerman horse. How could they have been buried under the conditions proposed by secularists?
3:30-“What happened?” How about a global Flood?
5:11-There is no doubt about the “4 million years ago” time? Who was there to know this time? This has been taken by faith by these paleontologists and many others.
6:00-Scavenging is a possibility for scattered bones alright, but what about the cataclysmic actions of a global Flood?
6:35-Dating volcanic ash is tremendously problematic. Organic materials can also be dated using radiocarbon dating which I would say is more likely to be correct.
7:35-Yes, rapid burial is required to make fossils, but how does this happen under uniformitarian conditions in lakes, rivers, and bogs?
10:40-11:40-So, is the secular method described here for determining the age of volcanic ash consist mainly of just looking at its color?
13:25-This is a very incomplete explanation for the formation of fossils. Not all fossils are completely permineralized as seems to be indicated here.
15:21-Notice “The Leakey Foundation” sizing gage used here and its Ape-to-Man Progression cartoon. This is not true. There is no scientific evidence for this!
18:25-Is the fossil record really incomplete? Fossils of many different kinds have been found. What else is there to look for other than various species decided by “splitter” paleontologists trying to make their names in the field by publishing new species names?
20:00-“How did we get here?” Yes, this is a foundational question that I believe is best answered by God’s Word.
20:26-Why would there be sedimentary layers stacked like pancakes if they were placed over millions of years? There would be evidence of erosion within and between the layers if they were laid down over millions of years. The big picture favors the biblical creationist interpretation not the evolutionist explanations.
Figure 8. Entrance to Hagerman Fossil Beds NM Visitor Center
[The waters] rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. (Genesis 7:20)
The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:24)
J.D. Mitchell
Secular References with information about the Hagerman Fossil Beds:
1. Hagerman Fossil Council, Equus Evolves-the Story of the Hagerman Horse, Black Canyon Communications, Boise, ID, 2000.
2. Willsey, Shawn, Geology Underfoot in Southern Idaho, Chapter 6, Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2017.
