Idaho 44: Gooding County - Fossils steal the show

By Samantha Wright

Published August 10, 2026 at 2:46 PM MDT

Fossil beaver Castor californicus may have used their smaller, dextrous front paws for digging and grasping sticks, and their larger webbed hind feet for swimming. They created dams that turned rivers into wetland sanctuaries for other species. These fossils date to the Pliocene Epoch in Hagerman, about 4 to 3 million years ago.

Between Mountain Home and Twin Falls sits Gooding County, a high desert landscape in the middle of Idaho.

It's got canyons and wildflowers and the Thousand Springs Visitor Center, which is the gateway to the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and Thousand Springs State Park.

People come to hike and birdwatch, but the fossils can steal the show. Fossils of everything from the Hagerman horse to a three-million-year-old otter to an animal known as the bone-crusher!

And since we’re visiting all of Idaho's counties for our Idaho 44 project, we wanted to know more about it, so Kendra Kersting, lead ranger at the Hagerman Fossil Beds, and Alex Kim, Museum Curator for the South Idaho National Parks, joined Idaho Matters to tell us more.