Mammoths
Several prehistoric mammoths have been excavated in the Black Rock Desert area. Casts of the bones are on display at the Humboldt County Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada State Museum in Carson City, Nevada.
1981 Dig
On Labor Day Weekend in 1979, Steve Wallmann found what appeared to be a mammoth tooth. He notified Dr. William Clelow of UCLA and in 1980 Wallman guided Clewlow to the site. [1] [2] [3]
An alternative recount of the discovery states that in 1981 Bill DeLong guided scientists to a site near Jackson Creek Ranch. [4]
In the summer of 1982, Clewlow returned to the site and excavated the entire skeleton. [5]
1988-1991
In August, 1988, staff from DRI and the Nevada State Museum returned to the site of the 1981-82 dig and to other fossil-bearing sites in the area. [6]
In 1988, Dick Hilton, a Sierra College Geology instructor lead a group to the area that discovered a decayed molar. The group returned in 1990 and again in 1991. In 1991, a tusk was excavated. [7]
1992
In 1992, Dr. Stephanie D. Livingston returned to the area. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
References
- ↑ Sessions S. Wheeler, "The Black Rock Desert," p. 189. Discussion about Steve Wallmann's Labor Day 1979 discovery of the mammoth.
- ↑ Miami News, "Desert Dig Shows New World Inhabited 20,000 Years Ago," September 30, 1981. Clewlow "was led to the site a year ago by an Oregon Logger, Steve Wallmann, who spotted what appeared to be a mammoth tooth while exploring in the desert during a vacation." The tooth was dated to being 20,000 years old.
- ↑ Battle Mountain Bugle, October 7, 1981, p16 (The Humboldt Museum has a copy in their files) The article states that the bones were found piled upon each other and that human made artifacts were found nearby. In addition, a tooth was dated as being 20,000 years old.
- ↑ History of Use for Roads in the Jackson Mountain Area, Nevada "In 1981, Bill DeLong guided scientist to a fossilized mammoth on the Black Rock Desert near Jackson Creek Ranch. Bill found the site while moving cattle. He could see portions of the mammoth tusks sticking from the ground. Although at the time, he did not know exactly what it was that he had found. Scientist excavated the site in the summer of 1981 and found a nearly complete fossilized mammoth dated approximately 20,000 years old. Replicas of the mammoth bones are now on display at the Humboldt County Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada, and the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, Nevada. The book, Nevada's Black Rock Desert, by Sessions S. Wheeler, published in 1994 by the Caxton Printers, Ltd. of Caldwell, Idaho, gives a brief account of the discovery on page 195." Note that the page number is incorrect for the above edition of Wheeler.
- ↑ Nevada Culture Museum A mammoth from the Black Rock Desert is on display. The page states "The mammoth was first discovered in 1979 by an Oregon logger, Steve Wallmann. He reported it to Dr. William Clewlow, Jr. of Ancient Enterprises, an archaeologist with extensive experience in Black Rock Desert archaeology, and a Nevada State Museum research associate" and "In the summer of 1982 Dr. Clewlow and his crew exposed the entire skeleton"
- ↑ Donald R. Tuohy, "Notes on a Clovis Point From the Black Rock Desert, Nevada," page 11, Nevada Archaeologist Volume 7, Number 1, 1989. Mammoth find at the Jackson Creek Ranch in 1981 and 1982. In 1988, DRI researchers were guided by Steve Wallman to the Mammoth find and to other sites. "The sites were already known to the local ranchers, the Bill DeLong family, and a few others, including one professional archeologist, Dr. C. William Clewlow."
- ↑ "Sierra College King Tusk", Auburn Journal, July 12, 1991. "Dick Hilton, college geology instructor...". "The remote desert fossil site was first discovered during a Sierra College Science Club trip in the spring of 1988." "Another science club group returned to the site in Fall 1990.
- ↑ Livingston, Stephanie D., "The DeLong Mammoth Locality, Black Rock Desert, Nevada," Current Research in the Pleistocene. 8: 94-97. 1992
- ↑ Stephanie Livingston, Claudia Miner, "Mammoths, Prehistory Archaeology and Interdisciplinary Research," in "Science, Values, and the American West," edited by Stephen Tchudi. 1997.
- ↑ Donald K. Grayson, "The Great Basin: A Natural Prehistory," page 211, 2011. "Casts of mammoth remains from the Black Rock Desert may be seen at the Nevada State Museum (see notes for chapter 9) and at the Humboldt Museum in Winnemucca. This latter museum has reconstructions of the Black Rock Desert's Delong mammoth, excavated by Stephanie D. Livingston (See figure 4-1 and Livingston 1992b) show as it appeared on the ground." See Figure 4.1.
- ↑ Humboldt Museum, Winnemucca "The Humboldt Museum's centerpiece attraction comprises several sets of wooly mammoth bones unearthed near the Black Rock Desert." actually, they are probably casts. "The bones are 13,000 years old!" a change from the previous dating. "The Humboldt Museum's collection of Pleistocene bones were excavated by archaeologists from the Quaternary Science Center of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, with the cooperation of the Bureau of Land Management, under the direction of Dr. Stephanie Livingston."
- ↑ Image : "Columbia mammoths, which were relatives of woolly mammoths, roamed as far south as the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where this fossil was found. The fossil was excavated under the direction of Stephanie D. Livingston, then of the Desert Research Institute"
- ↑ DRI News, Third Quarter, 1992 (The Humboldt Museum has a copy) - The article states that the bones of three to five mammoths were found and states that the bones probably washed down a channel and deposited.
External Resources
- UNR Photos by Sessions Wheeler
- Mammoth Dig, UNRS-P1999-06-071 ca. 1982
- Mammoth Dig, UNRS-P1999-06-050 ca. 1982
- Image Steve Wallman at the DeLong Mammoth Site, Black Rock Desert, in July, 1992
- Black Rock Station Euro-americans (Dead Link as of 2014-Oct-13)
- Humboldt Museum, Winnemucca (Dead Link as of 2015-Feb-21) A mammoth from the Black Rock Desert is on display. The website states that a nearby site was dated to 15,000 to 17,000 years ago, though a bone was dated as being 11,000 years old.