Sand pit visit

From the Delmont Centennial book published in 1986: "Hieb Sand Pit: The history of the current Hieb Sand Pit goes back over 100 years. The tale about how the sand was discovered has been handed down somewhat on this order. In the early years it happened that a Jeff Manbeck was riding across the country with his dog, all at once the dog started after a badger. The badger started to make the dust fly as he disappeared underground. On taking a second look at where the badger had disappeared it was noticed that the dirt looked real sandy. He told the family, William Reynolds, who lived nearby about his find. In 1882 a close neighbor of theirs took a sample to be checked out and found it to be a good grade of sand and the digging of sand has been going on ever since from this pit area. Of course the times have changed in the way sand was taken out, and means of transportation too.

Some of the different operators of the sand pit over the years were: Mr. Reynolds, Fred Holden, Mr. Cannon, Frank Whitney, then August Pullman bought the land in 1908 and moved onto it in 1909 and stayed there selling sand until 1920.

Albert Hieb bought the land including the sand pit in 1920, and it is still operated now by his son, Harlan and family.

Over the years there have been many bones and fossils found in the sand. Many have been identified by the University of Nebraska and the School of Mines. Some of  these bones were given to the School of Mines for their museum and research. Some have been identified to be over 2 million years old and a tooth was 80 million years old.