Although he was searching for deer, a hunter at the O2 Ranch in Brewster and Presidio counties found something very different and a little puzzling.
Could it be a mammoth tusk? In West Texas?
“I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,” said O2 Ranch Manager Will Juett. “I figured it was likely just an old stump, but imagined how great it would be if he was right.”
Juett said his great working relationship with the Center for Big Bend Studies (CBBS) at Sul Ross State University in Alpine spurred him to immediately reach out to Dr. Bryon Schroeder, director, and Archaeologist Erika Blecha. The researchers contacted graduate student Haley Bjorklund from the University of Kansas, a CBBS collaborator specializing in environmental archaeology, who is interested in studying ancient animals like the mammoth. The trio, along with Dr. Justin Garnett and Dr. Devin Pettigrew, both anthropology professors, met up at the ranch as soon as possible to explore the discovery further.
“It paid off big time,” Juett saidof their visit. “When they confirmed what they had uncovered, I couldn’t believe it.”
Schroeder said they quickly verified that it was indeed a mammoth tusk, a very rare find in West Texas.
“The tusk was located in the drainage area of a creek bed,” Schroeder said. “We realized pretty quickly there was not more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains.”
The researchers then spent two days plaster-jacketing the tusk — covering it in strips of plaster-covered burlap for protection — and building a frame to transfer it to SRSU’s Alpine campus for further study.
“A local who subsequently wrote his PhD dissertation on it found one in Fort Stockton in the 1960s,” Schroeder said, noting that it’s the only mammoth tusk in the Trans-Pecos that was carbon-dated, as that process began in the 1950s. “There was a big range of error back then. Now we can get it down to a narrower range within 500 years.”
Carbon dating results will be available in the next few months. While researchers study the new find with newer technologies, the discovery sparks the imagination.
“Seeing that mammoth tusk just brings the ancient world to life,” Juett said of the find that created a buzz of excitement. “Now, I can’t help but imagine that huge animal wandering around the hills on the O2 Ranch. My next thought is always about the people that faced those huge tusks with only a stone tool in their hand!”
To learn more about the Center for Big Bend Studies, visit https://cbbs.sulross.edu or email cbbs@sulross.edu.
Photo: Team members Erika Blecha, Haley Bjorklund, Justin Garnett and Bryon Schroeder wrap the tusk with strips of plaster-covered burlap that will harden into a cast to protect it during transport. Devin Pettigrew/CBBS