Columbian mammoth

To inform people of the Mammoth site in Waco, Tx.

The Waco Mammoth Site is a tourist attraction in Waco Texas, where the bones of 24 Columbain mammoth were buried approximately 68,000 years ago when rapidly rising waters from the Bosque River flooded the site.

The site was discovered in 1978 by Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin. Though the first bones at the site were discovered in 1978, the site remained closed to the public until the end of 2009. That year, a shelter was completed to protect the bones and allow the site to be viewed by the general public. The site, now run by the City of Waco and Baylor University, sits in a 100-plus acre stretch of wooded parkland along the Bosque River.

Approximately 68,000 years ago, at least 19 mammoths from a nursery herd were trapped in a steep-sided channel and drowned. A camel had also been trapped and killed during this event. Later floods buried the remains. A second event took place sometime later. During this event, an unidentified animal associated with a juvenile saber-tooth cat died and was buried. The third event involved a bull, a juvenile, and an adult female. No dinosaur bones have been found, nor are they expected to as the sediment is much too young. Approximately 15,000 years after the nursery herd was trapped, these animals also appear to have been victims of rising water, unable to escape due to the slippery slopes of the surrounding channel.

Congressional legislation is currently pending to create the Waco Mammoth National Monument and to include the site as a unit of the National Park Service.