On Wednesday, March 17, Holmes traveled to Shenandoah to observe overburden removal from the north bank of West Tarkio Creek at the sloth site. At eight on Thursday morning Holmes and Bob Athen found Mather and Sons on site with an excavator. The operator needed four hours to get the machine down the valley wall within reach of the sloth horizon and dig two operating platforms, one for the machine while removing overburden and the other to store back dirt. 
 
Shortly after noon, Phil (the operator) began removing 15-20 feet of overburden from the area immediately above the sloth bone concentration and, at the same time, constructed a five foot high coffer dam between the creek and the area to be excavated. A sump was excavated in a sloth free area inside the dam to collect seepage for easy pumping.  
 
The accessible area to the sloth level is now 20 feet both to north and east of the previous (January) trench walls. The set back is about nine feet from the west edge of the previous excavation. Approximately six inches to one foot of overburden remains over the sloth, fine tuning for a machine of this size. The enlarged area gives us plenty of elbow room for the next field trip, probably the weekend of April 17th. 
 
Holmes A. Semken April 5, 2004