Salem’s Woolly Mammoth
A long time ago huge beasts wandered the land on which Salem is built. In 1995 that theory was proven correct by the discovery of the remains of two tusks and a jaw bone on the southeast Salem farm of Tip and Mary Ann Hennessey. The remains were discovered by surprised workmen who were digging a trench for a gas company pipeline. Later, a paleontologist identified the samples as being from a Woolly Mammoth.
Buried about eight feet deep the prehistoric tusks were estimated to be about ten to fifteen thousand years old. There were indications that a lake existed in the area at that time. Perhaps the animal was drinking from this lake at the time of its death. It probably died of natural causes.
The remains of Woolly Mammoths and other prehistoric animals have been found at various spots in the Willamette Valley. The valley is considered to be fertile ground for the preservation of bones and fossils. A few miles north of Salem the remains of an entire herd of elephant-like creatures have been uncovered.
A type of elephant, the Woolly Mammoth lived during the last Ice Age. It had long, black shaggy fur with two huge, curving tusks. The beast was about 11 1/2 half feet long, 9 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighed about 3 tons. The Woolly Mammoth was well adapted to the cold. It was covered with a musk-ox-like pelt of long, dark guard hairs and fine under wool. It had long tusks (which it used to get food through the snow and ice and, also may have been used for protection.) It had a knob-like dome on its head, relatively small ears (which minimized heat loss,) and a sloping back with a hump of fat that it used for nutrition when food was scarce. Layers of blubber seven centimeters thick offered protection against the harshest temperatures.Â
The woolly mammoth probably originated in north-central Eurasia, spreading westward to England and Spain and eastward via the Bering Isthmus to the tundra-like regions of North America from Alaska to the Atlantic Coastal Shelf.
A great deal is known about its appearance due to the discovery of several well-preserved carcasses in frozen ground in Siberia and from the study of many detailed carvings, engravings, and murals by Stone Age (Paleolithic) artists.
Often used as a symbol of the ice age, the Woolly Mammoth reached the size of Asiatic elephants to which it is closely related. As time progressed its physical characteristics changed in order for it to survive under increasingly cold conditions. Not surprisingly, it became extinct as the Ice Age ended and the earth warmed. In some parts of the world (such as Siberia and Europe) early humans hunted the Woolly Mammoth. There is no evidence of people having lived in the Salem area during the Ice Age. But it is fascinating to imagine gigantic beasts wandering the land that has become Salem.
Compiled and written by Dick Lutz
Bibliography:
Appeal Tribune newspaper (Silverton, Oregon) June 7, 2000.
Stayton Mail newspaper (Stayton, Oregon) August 8, 1995.
Photo courtesy of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C., Canada
Historia de la Naturaleza: El Elefante, Al Igual Que Otras Criaturas, Alguna Vez Habito El Area De Salem
Hace mucho tiempo, bestias muy grandes vagaron por la tierra sobre la cual Salem fue edificada. En 1995 esa teorÃa fue probada correctamente con el descubrimiento de los restos de dos colmillos y un hueso de una mandÃbula en la granja de Tip y Mary Ann Hennessey al sudeste de Salem. Los restos fueron descubiertos por trabajadores que cavaban una zanja para una tuberÃa de la compañÃa de gas. Más tarde, un paleontólogo identificó las muestras como provenientes de un mamúth gigante.
Enterrados cercas de ocho pies de profundidad, se estimó que los “tusks” prehistóricos tenÃan una edad de diez a quince mil años. HabÃa indicios de que existió un lago en el área por aquel tiempo. Quizás el animal bebÃa agua en este lago al momento de su muerte. Este animal probablemente murió por causas naturales.
Los restos del giagantezco mamúth y otros animales prehistóricos han sido encontrados en varios lugares del Valle de Willamette. Se considera que el valle tiene un suelo fértil para la conservación de huesos y fósiles. A unas pocas millas al norte de Salem se han desenterrado restos de una manada completa de criaturas con similaridades a un elefante.
Un tipo de elefante, el gigantesco mamúth lanudo vivió durante la última Edad de Hielo. Este animal tenÃa la piel peluda, negra y larga con dos inmensos y curvados colmillos. La bestia tenÃa cerca de once y medio pies largo, nueve y medio pies de alto, además pesaba cerca de tres toneladas. El mamúth gigante estaba bien adaptado al frÃo. Estaba cubierto con un pellejo semejante al cuero de un buey, cabellos oscuros en la espalda como de lana. TenÃa colmillos largos (que usaba para coger comida y para atravesar la nieve y el hielo, lo mismo que como una protección). TenÃa una perilla semejante a una cúpula en su cabeza, orejas relativamente pequeñas (las cuales aminoraban la pérdida del calor) y una espalda inclinada con una joroba de carnosidad que utilizaba para nutrirse cuando el alimento era escaso. Las capas de grasa de siete centÃmetros de grueso le ofrecÃan la protección contra las temperaturas más duras.
El gigantesco mamúth probablemente era originario de la región central-norte de Euroasia, se extendió hacia el oeste de Ingalterra y España y hacia el este a través del estrecho de Bering para ir hacia las regiones tipo tundra de norteamérica desde Alaska y el lado costero del atlántico.
Mucho se sabe acerca de su apariencia debido al descubrimiento de varias reses muertas preservadas en pozos congelados en Siberia y del estudio de muchos esculturas detallados, grabados y de las pinturas frescas realizadas por artistas de Edad de Piedra (PaleolÃtico).
Con frecuencia usado como un sÃmbolo de la edad de hielo, el mamúth gigante alcanzó el tamaño de los elefantes Asiáticos, con los cuales se relaciona más cercanamente. Con el paso del tiempo sus caracterÃsticas fÃsicas cambiaron con el fin poder sobrevivir bajo las condiciones cada vez más frÃas. Nada sorpresivo, este animal llegó a extinguirse cuando finalizó la Edad de Hielo y al calentarse la tierra. En algunas partes del mundo (tal como Siberia y Europa) los primeros humanos cazaron al mamúth gigante. No hay evidencia de que haya vivido gente en el área de Salem durante la Edad de Hielo, pero es fascinante imaginar las bestias gigantescas que vagaban por la tierra donde ahora se encuentra la ciudad de Salem.
Recopilado y escrito por Dick Lutz
BibliografÃa:
Appeal Tribune newspaper (Silverton, Oregon) June 7, 2000.
Hugh “Tip” Hennessey Recounts Salem’s Mammoth Discovery
I have been involved in the cattle business for the past forty years, and in the Spring of 1994, I purchased a 285 acre farm in southeast Salem, just north of Turner, for both business (and) pleasure, and the beauty of the country. We feed a lot of cattle and from Spring through Fall most of that feed comes from pasture. So it did not sit well with me when the Northwest Natural Gas Company informed me that they intended to dig a ten foot deep, four foot wide trench through our land. We would be losing a large area of our pasture for the better part of a year. However, the work began in the Spring of 1995, and by July, the trench was about halfway completed. This is when an unfortunate situation turned into a “mammoth” discovery.
A phone call from an agent for the pipeline one afternoon in early July informed me that prehistoric remains were uncovered and that all work on the pipeline would come to a halt while the remains were being excavated. Evidently the excavators dug through and shattered a four foot wide section of a tusk belonging to a prehistoric Woolly Mammoth (about) ten to fifteen thousand years old.
A paleontologist, hired by Northwest Natural Gas to be on site in case of such an occurrence, carefully dug out what remained of the tusks. It was fascinating to watch how meticulously he worked, as ivory becomes very chalky over time and breaks easily. He excavated the two ends of the tusk (originally about twelve feet long) and a jawbone. He showed us how to solidify the chalky material and so our work began.
(Today) when we are out working the cattle in the area where the remains were found, it always causes me to visualize this huge and hairy elephant eight to ten feet below me drinking out of a lake 15,000 years ago.
This article originally appeared on the original Salem Online History site and has not been updated since 2006.
Where are these remains now?