There’s A Full-Size Mammoth Making Its Way To Mahaska County

Members of MidWestOne and Mahaska County Conservation Board met on Monday to celebrate a $50,000.00 grant to help purchase a mammoth display for the new environmental learning center.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – A full-size mammoth is once again going to be a part of Mahaska County, this time in the form of a life-size articulating display model.

Mammoths roamed Mahaska County nearly 14,000 years ago, when Iowa was more like modern day Canada, except cooler.

Three mammoths were confirmed at the Mahaska County dig site, and the 4th will be a replica, which will be placed inside the new environmental learning center to be built at Caldwell Park on the east side of Oskaloosa.

A Community Impact Grant from MidWestOne of $50,000 will make the life size mammoth display possible. The 40 branches of MidWestOne competed for the coveted prize, and this year the new Mahaska County environmental learning center and the residents of Mahaska County came out the winners.

The application committee prepared the grant for the mammoth display, they then submitted the grant and it was ultimately selected as a finalist.

Jane Krutzfeldt with MidWestOne says there were several local projects the committee contemplated before settling on the mammoth. When reaching out to various entities in the community, “we reached out to the county conservation board to ask what could be done with that amount of money. They had a specific project [mammoth].”

Another key factor in deciding the grant for the mammoth landing in Mahaska County was the amount of volunteer time bank employees agreed to invest in the project. “We were able to get 86 percent of our staff to pledge they would volunteer in some way with getting this environmental learning center up and running, or in the future.”

The mammoth, “will be a focal point in the environmental learning center,” said Sandy Bailey with MidWest One. “They have an area they’ve designated for this.”

“The more we worked on the project, we realized how beneficial this would be to the community,” said Bailey. “And, it will be a tourist attraction.”

When ready to be installed, the mammoth will come in pieces, and then assembled on site, and will take its place next to the real bones of the mammoths unearthed locally.

MidWest One had involvement early on with making sure the mammoth bones stayed in Mahaska County.

MidWestOne administers the W.L. McQuiston Community Trust, and the trust purchased the bones for the environmental learning center.

“For me personally, I am thrilled,” said Bailey. “I see a lot of great things going on in the Oskaloosa community, and I’m glad that MidWestOne can help the community and the environmental learning center, and hopefully draw more people to the area.”

Dave Sedivec, Mahaska County Conservation Director, said it was evident that the county wouldn’t end up with a complete mammoth during the dig, and when MidWestOne approached the conservation board with their idea, it seemed like the perfect fit.

It worked out perfectly that the grant was for the same amount as the replica mammoth.

With the groundbreaking ceremony set for August 3rd at 6:30 pm and the presentation of the grant money for the mammoth display, the Mahaska County Conservation Board is beginning to see the end of 10 years of work and planning.

A steering committee was put in place ten years ago, and the donated Caldwell land for the new environmental learning center made the first of many steps in the journey towards construction.

In August of 2008, the architect and construction manager for the project were first put into place. Since that time there has been seven different design changes.

Financial constraints have forced most of those changes, but the floods of 2010 made it apparent that the building would have been in a floodplain.

That same flood that necessitated re-evaluating where the building would be at Caldwell Park also unearthed the mammoth bones.

People from around the Midwest flocked to Mahaska County to participate in the mammoth dig, showing what a draw the prehistoric animals have.

Feature films like Ice Age have also generated considerable interest in the time that mammoths were alive.

With the mammoth bones finding their way into the public trust after the W.L. McQuiston Community Trust grant helped secure them for residents, the bones still needed a permanent home.

The bones created more interest in the environmental learning center, and the project once again began to gain steam.

Mahaska County Supervisor Willie Van Weelden spoke up during the sale of the county farm, saying that funds raised from its sale should go to a project and not just get absorbed into the county budget.

Former Mahaska County Supervisor Mike Vander Molen then helped to fill the missing piece by suggesting that a portion of the local option sales tax be used to help fund the new center.

Those funds raised so far only help with the construction costs, but don’t help with displays or furnishing the new center. “That’s why this timing is impeccable,” said Sedivec. “They get this grant the same week we’re doing our groundbreaking. I’m not used to good timing like that, so this has been great.”