Mastodon jaw found along Columbia River

It can be hard to imagine mastodons roaming around in Eastern Washington, but they did, and a Grant PUD pulled a bone from one out of a bag last week.

Back in March, the jawbone of an estimated 6-million-year-old Ringhold mastodon was found on Carbody Beach in the upper Hanford Reach area of the Columbia River, north of the Tri-Cities.

Brett Lenz is an archaeologist and manager of Grant PUD's Cultural Resources division. 

He came across a picture of the jawbone on Facebook. 

A "rockhound" had found it on the beach after his dog sniffed it out, and he hid it out of sight, not removing it. 

He posted a photo of it and Lenz recognized what it was right away and reached out to him, showed him his credentials, and the rockhound agreed to show him where he found it. 

"I didn't want to take custody of it until the Army Corps of Engineers' team had a look," Lenz said at a Sept. 13 Grant PUD commissioner meeting after surprising those in attendance by pulling the large fossil out of his bag.

The Army Corps of Engineers are the custodian of the federal land where it was found, which is also the ancestral homeland of the Wanapum People. 

The Corps arrived at the location with their own cultural experts, Lenz and the Wanapum River Patrol, and the Corps took custody of the fossil. 

Lenz then applied for a permit to study and display it for six months before it goes on display for a time at the Wanapum Heritage Center and eventually heads to its permanent home at the Visitor Center at Ice Harbor Dam.

During the commissioner meeting, Lenz also presented more information on the finding, including that the animal was likely 20-25 years old at the time that it died, and that the the sex of the animal is unknown. 

"The fossil find helps us better understand the types of animals that lived here in the past," his presentation says. "It also helps us understand plant communities at the time the Mastodon lived. They must have been very different from today as Mastodons were browsers, who eat woody brush and their leaves."

"A mastodon is the ancient predecessor of the elephant," a description from the meeting reads. "It has a long trunk, curved tusks, and a coat of warm fur. Its skull is squat – flatter than the tall skull of a wooly mammoth, whose teeth are flat for grazing. Mastodons are shorter than mammoths, with more massive bodies."

The Ringhold mastodons are named for the region they once inhabited that covers what is today most of Grant County and parts of Benton, Franklin and Adams counties.

The Star reached out to the PUD to ask why a public utility district would have an archaeologist and cultural resources department. 

Public Affairs Officer Christine Pratt explained that it was "because years ago, before our dams were built, the Wanapum People agreed not to object to dam construction if we would allow them to stay on their native homeland and agree to help them preserve and perpetuate their culture. We agreed and have been working with the Wanapum ever since. Part of that is helping the Wanapum keep a record of their sacred sites and the artifacts recovered along our shorelines (around the reservoirs of Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams) and ensuring they're not disturbed. Brett Lenz oversees all of that for Grant PUD." 

The department also ensures regulatory requirements are met related to cultural resources on historic, prehistoric sites, and "Traditional Cultural Places" important to the Yakama and Colville Confederated Tribes, a description in Lenz's presentation explains.