Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site Tours
will open for registration on March 1, 2023.
Read the MCBONES Covid-19 Safety Plan.
Welcome to the internet home of the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site.
The Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site is the keystone of the MCBONES Research Center Foundation.
A video of the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site (a Mark Harper production)
can be accessed by clicking here (will open in a new Youtube window).
Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site is featured in the May 05, 2019 Tri-City Herald digital edition.
Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site Facebook Page
Here is the story so far . . .
Columbian Mammoths roamed eastern Washington throughout the Pleistocene Epoch (the last Ice Age). The painting to the left, by local artist Rick Fesser, illustrates what the landscape may have looked like when mammoths roamed the land of Badger Mountain (Rattlesnake Mountain is in the background).
Cataclysmic Ice Age floods (such as those released from Glacial Lake Missoula) poured across Eastern Washington, sweeping many mammoths and other creatures to their deaths. Their carcasses, along with other floating debris, were carried downstream into temporary lakes and back waters. This painting by renowned Ice Age Floods artist Stev Ominski, with about the same perspective as Rick Fesser’s painting, illustrates what the shoreline of temporary Lake Lewis may have looked like if a modern geologist were to go back in time.
In November 1999, mammoth bones were discovered in a quarry south of Kennewick, Washington. The site was left undisturbed until it was rediscovered in 2008. At that time, it was established that the mammoth bones were located in Ice Age Flood deposits.
Upon rediscovery, excitement grew that this site might offer a unique opportunity for students, teachers, and researchers to investigate and study a well-preserved mammoth find in the context of Ice Age flood deposits.
Formal excavation of the site began in September, 2010.
Ongoing excavation provides an opportunity for students, teachers, scientists, and community volunteers to collaborate among several scientific disciplines.
By the end of the 2016 dig season, we had collected nearly 700 specimens, including 97 mammoth bones or bone fragments.
Excavation of the site continues two weekends per month from March through October.
There’s much more work to be done . . .
Join us today!
