Hunters discover remnant of ancient animal in Brooks Range creek bed
By Chris Eshleman
Published September 7, 2006

Some Anaktuvuk Pass caribou hunters harvested an unexpected trophy in late August–a 7-foot, 3-inch mammoth tusk.

The ice age specimen was first spotted by Mickey Paneak, 36, as he and his cousin Mike Morry, 33, were running after two wounded caribou about 8 miles south of the Central Brooks Range community.

Jumping over willow-filled Masu Creek, about a half mile above the John River, Paneak noticed something strange in the creek’s shallow bed.

“At first I thought it was a mushroom,” said Paneak, who stopped briefly to take a closer look.

Later, after he and Morry caught and field dressed their caribou, the cousins went back to investigate.

“The base of the tusk was sticking straight up and its mid-section had moss on it,” Paneak said, which explained his initial impression of a mushroom.

The pair removed the tusk from the creek bed and with the help of Paneak’s father, Raymond, they carefully transported it by Argo, an all-terrain vehicle, back to the village.

“It took two of us to carry it,” Paneak said.

Paneak estimates the tusk’s weight at 150-plus pounds.

As word of the unusual discovery spread around the community of 300, so did the excitement.

“The whole town was talking about it. We left it out in my front yard for a week so people could look at it,” said Paneak, grandson of the legendary Nunamiut Eskimo naturalist Simon Paneak.

“We’ve talked to the elders and they never found nothing like this,” he said.

The tusk now rests inside Paneak’s porch, where it will be scrutinized by more scientists and stay until decisions about its future are made.

Still under question is whether the tusk was found within the boundaries of the Gates of the Arctic National Park or the Nunamiut Corp.

On Wednesday, Paneak and park ranger Seth McMillan visited the area and hiked the mountainside, but didn’t find anything related to the earlier discovery.

McMillan described the site of the find as “an old creek bed, freshly washed out with all the rain this summer.”

Gates of the Arctic archaeologist Jeff Rasic of Fairbanks is eager to visit the area and view the tusk.

“It would be useful to have it radiocarbon dated,” he said.

Rasic said it’s not unusual to find only one tusk, and as an archaeologist he’s interested in seeing whether the tusk has been tinkered with.

“I would look for tool marks or cut marks … some evidence of it being modified by people,” he said.

According to paleontologist Paul Matheus of Whitehorse, Yukon, “glaciers have been coming and going for 2 million years.”

Matheus, a UAF research associate and the former director of the Alaska Quaternary Center, called the tusk “an unusual find,” and said there are only three explanations for the mammoth tusk being found in the area.

First, Matheus said, the tusk could be from an older mammoth, dating back 30,000 to 100,000 years ago during a relatively warm period when glaciers had retreated somewhat. The animal died and was buried by sediments before the glaciers re-advanced, covering and protecting the tusk during subsequent retreats and re-advancements.

“There are lots examples of this in and around Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada,” Matheus said.

Second, said Matheus, the glacier chronology in the Anaktuvuk Pass area of the Brooks Range has a complex history of advancing and retreating at the end of the ice age (Pleistocene Era), about 10,000-12,000 years ago, and the tusks could be from a “young” mammoth of that era.

Mammoths are believed to have become extinct about 10,000 years ago.

Third, Matheus said, is the possibility that the tusk was transported to the area by humans either prehistorically or historically.

“That’s not unusual,” he explained. “You will find old mammoth ivory in archaeological sites because people have been picking up old mammoth ivory for 10,000 years.”

Matheus also advises radiocarbon dating the tusk.

“It could reconstruct the glacier history of that area with better precision,” he said.

If any future remains of prehistoric mammals are discovered anywhere in Alaska, McMillan recommends that they not be removed from where they were found but left intact until experts on the subject can take a look and document the site.

Two weeks since the find, Paneak’s excitement about finding the tusk in a well-known hunting area he calls “our own backyard” hasn’t waned. And his interest in finding out more about what roamed the mountainous area in the past continues to grow.

“We don’t care about the money value,” he said.

There’s talk about keeping the tusk for display in the community’s Simon Paneak Memorial Museum so it can stay in Anaktuvuk and be shared with visitors.

And it’s certain that Paneak and Morry will be telling their hunting story many times over in the years ahead.

Mary Beth Smetzer can be reached at msmetzer@newsminer.com or 459-7546. Story courtesy of Fairbanks Daily News Miner