See mammoth bones being unearthed by Tri-Cities, WA. Some tour times still open

If you have not toured the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site near Kennewick where the bones of an Ice Age mammoth are being unearthed, you have chances on eight more days this year.

The MCBONES Research Center Foundation says there are some openings on tours from Saturday, Aug. 17, through mid October. Cost is $10 per person.

Visitors spend 90 minutes to two hours seeing the ongoing digging, participating in screening soil, seeing key specimens that have been found and getting a look at laboratory activities, along with a presentation about the history, discovery and findings at the site.

The nonprofit MCBONES operates the site as an outdoor classroom and laboratory for natural science research in an all-volunteer effort.

Not only are the bones of an ice age mammoth being unearthed, but small objects, such as beetle wings, ground squirrel teeth, mice bones and mollusk shells, found in the soil are being collected.

Changes in objects at different levels of the dig provide information about the changing environment of Eastern Washington and the Tri-Cities area over thousands of years, including the environment at the time the mammoth lived 17,000 years ago.

Mammoth bones

The mammoth being unearthed appears to be a male that was likely about 40 years old when it died.

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

Among bones already retrieved are a left shoulder blade, two upper front leg bones, two tail bones, two foot bones, and numerous ribs and vertebrae.

Money raised from the tours will be needed as MCBONES has radiocarbon dating done on some of its finds. It also will need to pay for professional identification of some microbiology species.

To register for a tour go to mcbones.org/public-tours.html and click on the line for the month you are interested in touring. Two tours usually start at different times each morning.

To prevent vandalism of the site, its location will be sent when registration is completed.

Private group tours and school tours also may be booked, although digging may not be active depending on when they are scheduled. People inquiring about those tours should include a telephone number and preferred time of day with their request.

The cost is waived for school tours.

If you are interested in volunteering at the site, contact Gary Kleinknecht at gary.kleinknecht@charter.net.