OK, to get this web site up and running, I’m going to start off with myself and my companeros; just a few names of the folks from our community who have figured prominently into our excursions over the years, including just a few words about each. Then I will move on to the institutions and individuals who have become involved in this project and made this work possible. My apologies to the many, many folks I am forced by time, space and my failing memory to leave out.
The Local Gang
Mike Full So most of this is my fault. When I was a young boy back in the mid-60’s I spent many happy summer days rowing my boat up and down the South Yamhill River from McMinnville. One day I picked up a fascinating rock, and decided to keep it. On another day, my river adventure lead me to a large projectile point. Years later these treasures were identified as a mammoth tooth and a Cascade point. I was hooked. Since then each summer finds us down on the river searching for fossils. One year I was rewarded by finding the fossil remains of a disarticulated mammoth weathering out of a cut bank of the river and called in the experts. Now we have several in situ fossil locations, and have identified the remains of mammoth, mastodon, giant sloth, extinct bison, ancient horse and camel; as well as many smaller species. While we have found a few projectile points, the cultural component at any in situ location continues to elude us. But there is always next year!
Marvin Reken Marvin has been my faithful sidekick and loyal partner on these river expeditions for years. We fish the river, look for fossils and on hot days have been known to drink more than a few beers to beat the heat. He operates a business in McMinnville, which limits his available time to explore the river, yet still fits in more river miles than anyone else on the crew. He is our designated photographer, and his expertise with a GPS is relied on more each summer. Marv is the one always willing to help set up and take down; first in the spring and last out in the fall. (Reports that I have pushed Marvin into the river and tried to drown him are wildly exaggerated but continue to be circulated by our detractors.)
Joanie Livermore Joanie and I met at college many years ago and have been the best of freinds ever since. We have floated the Willamette and Yamhill Rivers, and she takes to river floats like a duck takes to water. Aside from playing on the rivers with us, she runs a small ranch, raises sheep and is noted for her work with the North American Wensleydale Sheep Association. Her facination with fossils and her driving curiosity make her an invaluable asset to the Project, because she is also a professional medical illustrator of of great skill and merit. We have put her abilities to work sketching some of the illustrations you can find on our website.
Roger McGilvray Roger has moved out of the area, but deserves mention here for so much effort he put into the early project. Between him, Marvin and I, we wore out shovels and buckets by the boat load getting the mammoth site up and running. Roger was there during the first exciting days as we removed giant bones from the bank. He spent every spare minute at the site with us for two summers straight. (Roger also kept my wife, Kay, from plunging into the river when she fell down the bank: he cleverly acted as a landing pad.)
Larry Henry Larry worked with me for years as a police officer. Now that we are both retired, Larry is my chief resource as a heavy equipment operator. He has volunteered his time and expertise consistently, operating everything from bull dozers to back hoes and excavators when we needed help. He’s the kind of guy everybody wishes they had for a friend, but you can’t have him, he’s mine!
Waldo Farnham Owner and operator of Farnham Electric, Waldo is one of McMinnville's most respected community leaders. With his many, many other responsibilities, interests and duties; he still takes an active interest in our project and contributes his time and equipment to help us out. In 2009 he volunteered his support and spent many hours on his track hoe establishing access and clearing overburden to the McMinnville Mammoth. As a result, our scientists, Students and volunteers enjoyed the best possible site preparation and layout; they were able to recover the long sought and elusive right tusk and socket of the McMinnville Mammoth. Several other mammoth bone fragments and a bison vertebra were also discovered. We couldn't have done it without him!
Mack Reid Mack is another “can do” guy. For years he has taken time to help with site preparation and set up and take down in the summers. While he seldom has time to participate in the digs, he has acted as boat captain in taking students down the river and is available when it really counts. The mammoth tusk stub he discovered on his first trip down the river remains the largest diameter ivory we have found to date. (For those of you who have heard Mack spends much of his time in Prison, let me clear that up: Marvin spreads that rumor, Mack is a corrections officer, Narcotics Detection Dog Trainer and investigator for the Department of Corrections.)
Joey Gill I've known Joey just about her whole life. She is our web site developer, administrator, trouble shooter and all around computer SuperGenius. She also takes time out in the summer to hit the river with us in search of fossils, old bottles and fun. If you like her product or need some computer SuperGenius work done visit her web site at:
www.joeygilldesign.com
Alia Moore Alia was my research assistant and our newest recruit. She came to us during a job shadow day, and has just graduated from Linfield College. She has helped with the recent update of the fossil log and mapping, to get us caught up for the first time ever. She made several trips down the South Yamhill River and participated in two digs. Off to graduate school now, we wish her the best and hope to hear from her if she gets back into our area.
Our Friends, Colleagues, and Associates
The City of McMinnville owns land where we made the single most significant find to date: a disarticulated mammoth skeleton which radio-carbon dates out at 46,400 YBP. More recently, nearby, we have started work on a disarticulated, scattered bison. The City has played a continuing part in the Project, allowing us access to the site and helping protect it from unsupervised collecting. McMinnville has a home-town attitude which shines though consistently, with its employees donating their time and skills to assist in site preparation, access, scheduling and even collecting of the fossils. The City has allowed the collecting of the fossils with the understanding that the material is preserved, prepared, studied, and ultimately becomes the property of the Condon Museum of Natural History at the University of Oregon. Visit a great city and a wonderful place to live at their web site:
www.ci.mcminnville.or.us
John Gilpin and his sons Charlie and Max, have found that their creek, which empties into the South Yamhill River, is a treasure trove of late Pleistocene fossils. Mammoth, bison and sloth are in evidence at their site, a truly fossil rich bone bed which has been radio carbon dated at 12,800 YBP. John owns and operates Walnut City Wine Works here in Yamhill County, and his boys attend McMinnville schools when not digging fossils or appearing on the Tonight Show with their finds. The Gilpins have generously allowed us access to their site, and hold the same fascination with the fossil history of our area that grips us. They have pledged their collection to the Condon Museum, and we are all looking forward to many great summers at their location.
Dr. William Orr, professor emeritus and curator of the Thomas Condon collection of fossils at the State Museum of Fossils located at the University of Oregon, is our scientist in oversight. He and his wife Elizabeth have literally “written the books” on Oregon fossils and the geology of the northwest. Now retired, he still teaches classes at Chemeketa Community College, lectures, consults and somehow finds more time for us than we deserve. Dr. Orr has spent countless hours of his own time teaching us the basics of vertebrate paleontology, taxonomy, methodology; training us in field work and identifying fossil specimens. He has brought by specimens from the Condon collection for comparison, coordinated with our on-scene scientist, and lent his experience and counsel in a huge number of factors that have kept our project on track. Visit the Condon Museum at the University of Oregon web site:
darkwing.uoregon.edu
Dr. Alison T. Stenger, Ph. D. is the director of research for the Institute for Archeological Studies and our on-sight scientist. She was the field director of the Woodburn Paleoarchaeological Project, where her team succeeded in identifying many species of extinct Ice Age fauna and extracting an ancient human hair from the late Pleistocene bog deposits. Her contacts at the La Brea Museum are a tremendous resource to us, positively identifying sloth, mammoth, mastodon, giant bison, extinct camel, ancient horse and bighorn sheep from our sites in 2007 and 2008. Additionally, she has shared her knowledge of projectile points with us, to aid in the identification of the few scattered surface finds we have documented. The Institute for Archeological Studies is a non-profit, education and research organization, doing mostly State and Federal projects, but occasionally private contracts. The Institute does field work, lab work, and papers on its projects; they will stabilize and catalogue specimens, but they do not curate collections. Check out their website at:
community.webshots.com/user/astenger
David Ellingson and the Woodburn Pleistocene Site. David Ellingson is a science teacher at the Woodburn High School. In recent years he has been leading an investigation into the Pleistocene past right on the Woodburn High School grounds. He and his students are excavating a nearly complete ancient bison from the grounds. The size, completeness of the skeleton as well as the excellent state of preservation make it one of the finest Pleistocene megafauna beasts ever excavated in Oregon. The bison is on display at the Woodburn High School in David's classroom.
Dr. Robson Bonnichsen and the Center for the Study of the First Americans. Dr. Bonnichsen's work and accomplishments were nationally and internationally recognized, yet he found the time to help us whenever we called; participating in a scouting float of the river, conducting the first exploratory dig at the McMinnville Site and producing two papers on the “McMinnville Mammoth”. His death in 2004 deprived us of more than a valuable resource; it took away a friend and he is sorely missed. The Center for the Study of the First Americans, with Dr. Mike Waters as its director, remains one of the foremost institutions studying paleo-archeology in America today. Its mission is “exploring the questions surrounding the peopling of the Americas.” Visit the Center at their website:
http://www.centerfirstamericans.com
Vince Patton and the crew at Oregon Field Guide. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Vince Patton and photographer Mike Bendixon joined us for an outing during the summer of 2007 to film the excavation of a mammoth upper palate with one beautifully preserved molar in place. Later, we went SCUBA diving and they caught on film the discovery of a huge claw from an extinct giant ground sloth. A great group of people to work with, and the program aired October 9th, 2008. To view the program, visit their website at:
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg