See mammoth bones being dug up near Tri-Cities. 2023 tours expected to go fast

The public is invited to tour the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site near Kennewick as volunteers prepare to resume seasonal digging for more bones.

Registration for tours from April through October opens March 1. All spots on the tours, usually offered one Saturday a month, go quickly.

Digging for 2023 will start in March at the site, the hillside resting place of a 17,500-year-old Columbia mammoth that lived during the ice age, according to Gary Kleinknecht, the site’s education director.

The last major bone to be unearthed since excavation of the site began in about 2010 was a large vertabrae that erosion had partially exposed at the dig site during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work to carefully remove that bone began in 2021 and was completed in 2022.

The vertebrae, which was from the mammoth’s mid to upper back, was sticking out of the vertical dig wall and at risk of damage. It was already broken, which is not unusual, Kleinknecht said.

What bones they could uncover next is a mystery, he said.

The soil could still hold leg bones, the pelvis, the cranium, tusks and more ribs and vertebrae.

Among bones already retrieved are two upper front leg bones, two tail bones, two foot bones and numerous ribs and vertabrae.

The animal’s left should blade has also been removed and placed in a plaster cast. Researchers will be opening up the cast to clean the bone, study it and display it.

Some bones, including the lower jaw bone, ended up in private hands before the MCBONES Research Center Foundation took control of the site.

But it’s not just the bones of the mammoth that are being collected and studied.

Microbiology research was done this winter, Kleinknecht said.

Every clump of dirt taken from the hillside in the canyon is collected in buckets and brought to a canopy-covered area a few yards away. There it goes through the “wet screen” process, where sediment is washed off.

The remnants are then examined to find small objects, such as the wing of a beetle, the tooth of a ground squirrel or a mollusk shell.

Changes in objects at different levels of the dig provide clues to past changes in climate conditions in Eastern Washington.

About this mammoth

The initial discovery of mammoth bones at the site was made in 1999 during excavation on private property.

Excavation halted, and when the land went up for sale a local farming family purchased it to turn it into a nonprofit research center for teachers, students and community volunteers.

In 2008 MCBONES — the Mid-Columbia Basin Old Natural Educational Sciences — Research Center Foundation — was established as an educational nonprofit, and work to recover the bones began a couple of years later.

The mammoth appears to be a male, because bone growth plates take longer to fuse in males. He likely was about 40 years old when it died with a front leg growth plate still unfused.

The animal was large, likely standing 10 to 13 feet tall at the shoulder, making it bigger than modern day elephants.

During the ice age flood water backed up as it hit the narrow Wallula Gap to cover what is now the Tri-Cities. The dig site is at an elevation of about 1,060 feet, and floods may have been deep enough to reach the area about seven times.

The mammoth could have been drowned in the flood, and then the carcass could have been deposited on the hillside as waters receded.

The bones have been found relatively intact — the ribs somewhat jumbled, for example, but not scattered over a wide area.

Tour information

Go to coyotecanyonmammothsite.org to register starting March 1 for a Saturday tour.

The McBones Research Center Foundation already is accepting applications for school field trips, which are offered either in person at the site many weekdays or virtually via Zoom.

In addition, clubs, civic groups and community organizations may request tours for 12 to 20 people without waiting for March 1. Tours are scheduled depending on availability of volunteers.

For a school or group tour, go to mcbones.org/CCMSTours/index.html.

Participants will be emailed instructions for participating and directions to the tour site, which is at an undisclosed location to prevent vandalism.

Tours last about 90 minutes to two hours. They include a visit to the Dig House for a presentation on the history and discovery of the site and the findings to date. They also will see key specimens recovered and tour laboratory activities.

The rest of the tour is outside at the actual dig site, with a chance to watch and learn about active excavation and participate in screening soil.

Volunteer at mammoth site

The nonprofit foundation is looking for volunteers.

Open positions include an education assistant, a volunteer coordinator and a dig house manager.

The organization also needs volunteers to screen dirt, which could lead to helping with digging. Additional volunteers support dig units with tasks such as fetching tools.

To volunteer, contact Kleinknecht at 509-438-9417 or gary.kleinknecht@charter.net.

This story was originally published February 17, 2023 at 12:57 PM.