Mastodon State Historic Site
| Mastodon State Historic Site - Kimmswick Bone Bed | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Mastodon skeleton at the Mastodon State Historic Site Museum |
|||
|
|||
| location | Jefferson County in Missouri (USA) | ||
| Coordinates | 38 ° 22 '44.7 " N , 90 ° 23' 5.1" W | ||
| surface | 172 ha | ||
| NRHP number | 80002371 | ||
| The NRHP added | 1980 | ||
The Mastodon State Historic Site is a state park off Interstate 55 near Imperial in Jefferson County , Missouri . The 172 hectare site is at a height of 137 m and contains the Kimmswick Bone Bed, an important common site for mastodon bones and stone projectile points.
35,000 to 10,000 years ago, the glaciers of the Laurentide Ice Sheet slowly melted back to the north and probably left behind a landscape with mineral springs and partly swampy ground. Some mastodons and other animals sank in the swamp, leaving behind well-preserved bones. Early aborigines reached the area around 12,000 years before our time, so humans and mastodons lived there simultaneously for a brief period.
The earliest records of bone finds are from the early 1800s. In 1839 there were weathered finds along Rock Creek and digs by Albert C. Koch , owner of the St. Louis Museum . Firmly convinced that he had found a new and unknown species, he named it Missouri Leviathan and showed it at exhibitions in the USA and Europe. However, the comparative anatomist Richard Owen of the British Museum in London was able to clearly identify the pieces as an American mastodon .
Interest in the site revived at the beginning of the 20th century when the amateur palaeontologist C. W. Beehler excavated several skulls, jaw parts, teeth and bones. The train transported many curious and interested people who also visited the museum. The finds from this time are no longer completely available and are insufficiently documented. Between 1940 and 1942, archaeologist Robert McCormick Adams of the St. Louis Academy of Science directed the excavations. He discovered other bones, tusks and a few artifacts of human origin.
When Interstate 55 was built, interest in the area reawakened, and several people and organizations tried to obtain a protected status, so in 1976 the Missouri Department of Natural Resources acquired the site and the site and declared it a state park .
Further excavations took place in 1979, and Russel W. Graham of the Illinois State Museum had the first tangible evidence of an interaction between humans and mastodons when a stone projectile that could be assigned to the Clovis culture was found there on the bones . The Kimmswick Bone Bed was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1987 . In 1996 the area was renamed Mastodon State Historic Site.
In total, bones from more than 60 mastodons were discovered. In the local museum, among other things, a complete skeleton of a male is on display. In the park area, the Tom Stockwell Wildflower Trail connects the museum with the excavation sites. Next to the museum, the Callison Memorial Bird Sanctuary was created in 1995 with fodder plants for birds and butterflies.
References
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.explorestlouis.com/media/factSheets/fact_mastodon.asp
- ↑ http://www.slfp.com/Mastodon.htm
- ↑ http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/jeffco/mastodon.htm
