Mastodon fossil makes appearance at Grant PUD commission meeting

EPHRATA — The fossil found in the Hanford Reach of an extinct ancestor to the elephant will be on display at the Wanapum Heritage Center near Wanapum Dam for six months. The section of the jaw of a mastodon was displayed for Grant County PUD commissioners at the regular meeting Tuesday.

“Now for some fun. Show and tell time,” said PUD Manager of Cultural Resources Brett Lenz, opening up a backpack he had stored under the table, according to a release from public information officer Christine Pratt.

“(Lenz) reached inside and withdrew part of the toothy jawbone section of a Ringold mastodon, approximately 6 million years old,” Pratt wrote. “He set it on the table as commissioners and a few staff in the room gathered around, awestruck and fascinated.”

Lenz was looking at social media when he saw a picture of the fossil, posted by a person he described as a rockhound. The rockhound’s dog found it while they were in the northern section of the Hanford Reach in March, Pratt wrote. The finder was looking for information about the mystery find.

“I knew right away it was a mastodon,” Lenz said.

The thick, jagged teeth gave it away; the mastodon used them to bite through woody vegetation, Pratt wrote.

The fossil was on federal land, managed by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. Lenz said he contacted the finder, who agreed to show Lenz where the fossil had been hidden. Lenz waited until the Corps of Engineers could provide its own experts to accompany him, Pratt wrote.

“It was fantastic,” Lenz said of the find.

He applied for and was granted permission to study the fossil for six months. The bone was located on what is now recognized as the ancestral homeland of the Wanapum, Pratt wrote. After the six months, the fossil will be moved to a permanent display at the Ice Harbor Dam visitors center.