07/10/07 The Hagerman

America's first horses have been set free to roam the range once again, I'm Jeff Keane and I'll be right back to explain. Displayed on 1800 of the new u-haul shipping vans the first known horse of the Americas will be traveling once again. Here's Becky to unearth little bit of their history. In 1928 local cattle rancher, Elmer Cook from the small Idaho town of Hagerman stumbled upon several fossil bones on his land. After a little digging researchers found over three tons of fossil specimen resting along the shores of the now extinct Lake Idaho. Most importantly, large volumes of the remains were found to be the oldest known representative of the genus Equus, which now includes the modern horse, donkeys and zebras. Due to the location of this colossal find the species was name the Hagerman horse. This find not only provided the largest sample of the Hagerman species but also a clue as to what the land was like over 3 million years ago. Sounds like quite a find. You could say that again! To honor the history of the Hageman horse and the Hagerman Fossil beds the town now pays tribute annually with their Memorial weekend, Hagerman Fossil Day Celebration. This year, U-haul kicked off the release of the Hageman Horse vans during their opening ceremonies, giving people across the nation the privilege to see America's first horse traveling once again. Well Becky it seems even after more than 3 million years you still can't keep a good horse down, I'm Jeff Keane.