Kyle’s Woolly Mammoth brings back the past. Acclaimed as one of the greatest archaeological finds in Western Canada was the uncovering of a 10,000 year old
partial skeleton of a giant Mastodon (Woolly Mammoth) The remains of this animal were found buried in claylong a road three miles west of Kyle. It was discovered by a municipal road crew onOctober 19, 1964, while raising the grade of a road. A tusk of the creature was spotted by William McEvoy, a tractor operator, who immediately notified the Kyle police. Scientists were at the scene in time to preserve the remains of this prehistoric animal. Geological evidence at the Kyle site shows that the remains of the mammoth had been deposited there 10,000 years ago. At that time, geologists say, this area was covered in stagnant ice, part of a shrinking glacier in which isolated ponds had developed. It appeared the mammoth had been trapped in one of these ponds and became buried in sandy deposits which settled in the pond. Previous finds show that three types of man were known to have lived about the same time as the mammoths. These were the Sandia, Clovis and Folsom. The Clovis man was believed to be a hunter of the mammoth. Museum officials were hopeful of finding some trace of one of these, either a tool or a weapon, which may have been used to kill the beast, but were unsuccessful. It is believed that these animals might have migrated from India north and crossed the Bering Strait into America. There were approximately 20 bones unearthed, one of these being a tooth measuring a foot long and eight inches wide. A scientist described the leg bone as a “magnificent thing”. Because a mammoth’s tusks end in a circle, removal of this eight foot tusk was a delicate operation. The bones were uncovered with very precise instruments and preserved immediately with a mixture of shellack and alcohol. The alcohol evaporates, leaving the shellack to harden, preventing disintegration of the perishable bones when exposed to the air. They were then encased in plaster of paris jackets and stored in Kyle for two to three weeks before being transported by truck to the Museum of Natural History in Regina. An estimated 20,000 people visited the site during the digging operations. Archaeologists praised Mr. McEvoy for his alertness, and the people of Kyle for their cooperation in protecting the suspected find until scientists could investigate the remains of THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH. For more information, check out Wheatland Regional Library in Kyle.