By John Tompkins

The Angleton Times
Published January 10, 2004

The remnants of two mammoths, allegedly 38,000 years old, have been discovered over the past two months at a sandpit site in Clute off Dixie Drive. Kenny Vernor, General Manager of Vernor Materials and Equipment, which owns the site, said they discovered a tusk back in November and tried to get someone to dig deeper for more.

"In November one of our operators ran into a single tusk," Vernor said. "But we couldn't get anyone interested in examining them."

November 20, the same operator discovered two complete tusks approximately 100 yards away from where the first tusk was found. "He saw a streak of chalk and discovered some more bones," Vernor said. "The bones were completely undisturbed." Found with the tusks was a tooth of the mammoth which, according to Vernor, is about, "the size of a small football."

"They also found a tree at the same strata as the mammoth," he added. "The mammoth was about 40 feet deep on top of a clay shelf that is at least 30 feet thick." After this discovery, Vernor said he had no problems getting people interested in a closer look at the site.

"Texas A&M and two doctors visited the find the next day," he said. Dr. Robson Bonnichsen, of Texas A&M University, is overseeing the dig currently along with the help of Dr. Mike Waters, a geologist and Brian Mills of the Brazosport Museum of Natural History. There is a team of 12 graduate students from Texas A&M at the site assisting alongside a crew from the Brazosport Archeological Society. Also assisting in the dig are Dr. Floyd Jones and Dr. Carl Baugh.

ConocoPhillips has decided to sponsor the dig as well. "We wanted to keep everything local, which is why we have ConocoPhillips as sponsors," Vernor said.

Since the discovery of the bones, the Clute Police Department has been keeping close eye on the site ensuring no curious onlookers could enter.

The first tusk discovered, dubbed "Joe Mammoth," will be uncovered as well. The second mammoth discovered, called "Asiel" (Hebrew for "God's creation") is currently being excavated by the A&M and BAS teams.

Early on, Vernor said there is a possibility of some pre-historic human interaction with the site. Oyster shells were found all over the site which is what humans used in that time to scrape meat off of the bones of animals,” Vernor said. The bones of the mammoth are also stacked which is another indication of human interaction. "This probably a part of the mandible," Bonnichsen said as he reached down to meticulously brush off some grit from the piece of pre-historic bone. "It's pretty huge."

Bonnichsen said the tree, which was discovered close to the mammoth, was approximately 38,000 years old, "give or take 2,000 years." No definitive age of either mammoths have been determined yet.

So far, the two, 10-foot tusks and Asiel's skull have been discovered. Only after further digging will it be determined if there are more skeletal remains.

No complete mammoth skeleton has been discovered in the Texas Gulf Coast Region. There was a mandible bone of a mammoth discovered in Bay City.

"It looks like we got the gridlines here," Bonnichsen said to his team of archeology students. "We could use some more people." As Bonnichsen continued digging, his students showed him something interesting. It was a piece of bone that had broken off from the tusks. As he looked at the broken piece of fossil he noticed the breaks in it and he tried to determine when the breaks in the bone occurred. "They are old breaks," Bonnichsen said. "Flag it and work around it," he said to his crew.

If the mammoth is close to 40,000 years old, it is probably unlikely there was any human interaction according to Dr. Ephriam Dickson, a paleontologist with the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

"At this point, archeological records point to human existence here as being between 10,000 to 15,000 years," he said. "However, we are still pushing that date back."

If Asiel or Joe are indeed as old as the tree, then they both died approximately 20,000 years prior to human existence on this continent according to archeological records. "That's what scientists are trying to discover," Dickson said. "Mammoth kill sites are a very rare find."

Dickson also said that the type of mammoth discovered in Clute is probably a Colombian mammoth. "We have lots of fossil records of these mammoths in Texas," he said. "There is lots of evidence they existed between 1 million and 1.5 million years ago."

Dickson also discussed the importance of the site if human interaction is proven on the site. "If there are indications of human interaction," Dickson said. "That would be very significant."

The area where Asiel was found was originally called "Pit One" according to Vernor. He said that it is going to be renamed to Mammoth Lake. Vernor made no qualms about the ownership of the Asiel and Joe’s remains. "They're ours," he said. However, Vernor said he intends to have the remains placed in a local museum, The Center for Arts and Sciences.

"We want to exhibit this at the local museum," he said. "That's our goal all along."

NEW IN CLUTE, TEXAS!

Kenny Vernor and Mike Cryer together collected items such as a 150-year-old anchor from a Spanish galleon to a modern fighter jet and space shuttle boom to submerge in the Vernor Sandpit that will transform the pit into a dive pond.

Kenney Vernor, President of Vernor Materials and Equipment, is tracking down unusual items to create what he and Hydrosports Scuba Shop owners Mike and Michelle Cryer hope will be a national destination for divers which will create a anachronistic underwater world.

Scheduled to open in the fall, the 3,600 square-foot scuba store that will house an indoor pool along with class instructions and diving supplies.

With the addition of the dive lake, the facility would be able to train, certify and equip divers all at one site. The 47-acre dive lake will rival some of the largest in the nation, Cryer said.

Additionally, the lake would have a maximum depth of 65 feet, making it suitable for a deep-dive certification site.

The Mammoth Lake is named after the discovery of mammoth fossils while digging in the Verner Sandpit and remains of a 5-foot armadillo, giant sloth’s and beavers as well as a bowl carbon-dated to more than 4,000 years old.

Hydrosports hopes to attract 200-800 divers a month and become a nationally recognized diving destination.

These people will need places to stay and restaurants to eat at, Cryer said. It will be a real boost to the local economy.

This new tourist attraction in Clute will be open approximately the later part of September 2006. For additional information, please call the Hydrosports Scuba
Shop…979-285-0600