The story
In June 1974, equipment operator George Hanson exposed a tusk while leveling ground for a subdivision. Landowner Phil Anderson donated the bone bed rather than build on it, and excavation began in 1975. The site was a Pleistocene sinkhole — a spring-fed pond with slick walls that trapped mostly young male mammoths. As of 2016, 61 mammoths (58 Columbian, 3 woolly) had been recovered, plus an ancient short-faced bear. Today it's an indoor museum built directly over the still-active dig.
Everything that was here
- 1974–present · still open
The Mammoth SiteMuseum
A bulldozer clearing land for a housing subdivision in 1974 broke into a 26,000-year-old sinkhole packed with the bones of dozens of trapped mammoths.
See the map in 1975 →
Did you know?
The sinkhole was found by accident in 1974 during subdivision construction — which was scrapped to save it.
61 mammoths have been recovered so far, nearly all young males.
It's one of the few places on Earth where the public can watch active fossil excavation indoors, year-round.
Nearby history
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