A long time ago huge beasts wandered the land on which Salem is built. In 1995 that theory was proven correct by the discovery of the remains of two tusks and a jaw bone on the southeast Salem farm of Tip and Mary Ann Hennessey. The remains were discovered by surprised workmen who were digging a trench for a gas company pipeline. Later, a paleontologist identified the samples as being from a Woolly Mammoth.

Buried about eight feet deep the prehistoric tusks were estimated to be about ten to fifteen thousand years old. There were indications that a lake existed in the area at that time. Perhaps the animal was drinking from this lake at the time of its death. It probably died of natural causes.

The remains of Woolly Mammoths and other prehistoric animals have been found at various spots in the Willamette Valley. The valley is considered to be fertile ground for the preservation of bones and fossils. A few miles north of Salem the remains of an entire herd of elephant-like creatures have been uncovered.

A type of elephant, the Woolly Mammoth lived during the last Ice Age. It had long, black shaggy fur with two huge, curving tusks. The beast was about 11 1/2 half feet long, 9 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighed about 3 tons. The Woolly Mammoth was well adapted to the cold. It was covered with a musk-ox-like pelt of long, dark guard hairs and fine under wool. It had long tusks (which it used to get food through the snow and ice and, also may have been used for protection.) It had a knob-like dome on its head, relatively small ears (which minimized heat loss,) and a sloping back with a hump of fat that it used for nutrition when food was scarce. Layers of blubber seven centimeters thick offered protection against the harshest temperatures. 

The woolly mammoth probably originated in north-central Eurasia, spreading westward to England and Spain and eastward via the Bering Isthmus to the tundra-like regions of North America from Alaska to the Atlantic Coastal Shelf.
A great deal is known about its appearance due to the discovery of several well-preserved carcasses in frozen ground in Siberia and from the study of many detailed carvings, engravings, and murals by Stone Age (Paleolithic) artists.

Often used as a symbol of the ice age, the Woolly Mammoth reached the size of Asiatic elephants to which it is closely related. As time progressed its physical characteristics changed in order for it to survive under increasingly cold conditions. Not surprisingly, it became extinct as the Ice Age ended and the earth warmed. In some parts of the world (such as Siberia and Europe) early humans hunted the Woolly Mammoth. There is no evidence of people having lived in the Salem area during the Ice Age. But it is fascinating to imagine gigantic beasts wandering the land that has become Salem.

Compiled and written by Dick Lutz

Bibliography:
Appeal Tribune newspaper (Silverton, Oregon) June 7, 2000.
Stayton Mail newspaper (Stayton, Oregon) August 8, 1995.
Photo courtesy of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C., Canada