Years flew by with the fossils in storage, and now, improved exhibit technologies and funds from the state of Nebraska and Friends of the Prehistoric Prairies Discovery Center have made the return possible after 43 years.

"When I returned to the university in 1975, it was great to see the old Crawford mammoths still here in the collection," Voorhies, who had gone on to graduate school at the University of Wyoming and taught at the University of Georgia. "It is by far the best mammoth material in Nebraska Hall right now. But, it's going to definitely be a plus to get this back out to Crawford.

"This is a unique, dramatic fossil and it stirs the imagination to think of the struggle these two put up before they fell."

"This fossil is something that means a lot to the people of Crawford," said Mike Liete, a professor of geosciences at Chadron State College and member of the Friends of the Prehistoric Prairie Discovery Center. "This return is something that the people have been waiting for since the mammoths went to Lincoln in 1962."