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Waco Mammoth National Monument: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Back in a time roughly 65,000 years ago, there were once far-ranging fields of grass between the Bosque and Brazos river and not the forests of oaks mixed in with mesquites and junipers that you see today. Resembling what you know as the African savanna, at that time, a herd of female Columbian mammoths brought their babies through those fields during an intense rainstorm. Paleontologists believe that while they were traversing the fields, the rain swelled either one or both of the rivers, resulting in catastrophic floods and mudslides, sweeping the mammoths away and burying them in a quagmire of clay in what is now known as north Waco.

Waco Mammoth National Monument: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Photo: Wikimedia

Fast forward to 1978, when Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin were searching for arrowheads and fossils close to the Bosque River. The two men came across a large bone and took it to the Strecker Museum at Baylor University for analysis. This was the original discovery of the mammoth deposit, leading to the development of a partnership for its excavation and development. And in 2015, almost 40 years later, the site was named a National Monument by President Barack Obama.

Waco Mammoth National Monument: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Photo: Facebook/Waco Mammoth Nation Monument

As a National Monument, the site has added four park rangers to work with Waco city staff to run the facility and offer guided tours, which are the only way for the public to see the excavation site. Since its discovery, museum staff, students, and volunteers have spent many thousands of preservation hours on the fossils. Remains that were excavated through 1990 are presently on display at Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum Complex, the majority of which remain in their original position within the bone bed. In recent years, these specimens have been protected by a climate-controlled dig shelter which allowed for both continued scientific study as well as public viewing.

Waco Mammoth National Monument: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Photo: Facebook/Waco Mammoth National Monument

Waco Mammoth National Monument tours begin on a bridge overlooking the ravine where the two men originally came across the first bone in 1978. By 1990, 16 mammoths had been discovered – all from the buried nursery herd. These mammoths roamed Earth during the Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch). By contrast, wooly mammoths lived in the northern regions of the continent, where these Columbian mammoths may not have been as wooly, having no need for a heavy coat in the warmer environments of southern North America and Central America. The remains of a camel, an American alligator, a giant tortoise, and a canine from a juvenile saber-toothed cat have also been excavated at the site.

Waco Mammoth National Monument: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Photo: Facebook/Waco Mammoth National Monument

To keep the site from being disturbed, for many years Baylor and Waco kept the bones a secret, and in 1996, the owners of the private property containing the dig site donated it to the city of Waco. They then worked with Baylor to incorporate the Waco Mammoth Foundation in order to raise money to build a structure around the site of discovery in order that the public could see the bones exactly where they were found. This site opened to visitors in 2009, including a five-acre city park and an additional 102 acres of undeveloped land. Who knows what’s yet to be discovered! For more information and tour details, visit the Waco Mammoth National Monument website. You won’t believe your eyes!

Sources:

Wikipedia

Waco Mammoth National Monument