Mastodon Artifact To Go On Display At Wanapum Heritage Center
The lower jawbone of a 6-million-year-old mastodon is going on display at the Wanapum Heritage Center in Mattawa after a Grant County PUD worker helped identify it.
PUD manager of Cultural Resources Brett Lenz saw a Facebook post of someone who located the relic on the upper Hanford Reach.
Lentz notified the Army Corps of Engineers, who took the fossil into custody.
Lentz has been granted a permit to study the mastodon jawbone, which is going on display at the Wanapum Heritage Center for six months.
It'll then go to it's permanent home at the Visitor Center at Ice Harbor Dam.
Ringhold mastodons are named for the region they once inhabited that covers what is today most of Grant County and parts of Benton, Franklin and Adams counties.
Lentz has credentials as an expert in archaeology and geology at Grant PUD.
"It was fantastic," said Lenz said bout his random find on Facebook and recovery of the fossil. "Before I worked for the PUD I spent four summers in Ukraine digging these things up."
The Army Corps of Engineers is the custodian of the upper Hanford Reach, where the mastodon was found.