A Mastodon Discovery in the Washington Countryside
A young boy scraping at the bottom of a spring unearths a relic from a lost era, shedding light on the ancient history buried beneath the ranch lands of Washington.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A son of Benjamin Williams was scraping with a rake in the bottom of one of the numerous springs which abound on their ranch, when all at once his rake struck a solid substance and became attached to it. The boy gave a slight pull and noticed that the object was loose, and he immediately began to remove it. When he had landed his catch and poured some water over it he found he had a large tooth and part of a jawbone, probably belonging at some time to a mastodon. It was about twenty inches long and about eight inches through—larger than a common man’s head.
“When he had landed his catch and poured some water over it he found he had a large tooth and part of a jawbone, probably belonging at some time to a mastodon.”
Fossil discoveries continue to occur across Washington state as environmental changes reveal the region's ancient past. Much like this 1892 discovery, these finds remind modern residents of the deep, geological history hidden just beneath the surface of our rapidly developing landscape.
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