Mammoth Replica Helping Environmental Learning Center Bring Past Mahaska To Life
A life-size mammoth replica is now on display at the Mahaska County Environmental Learning Center.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Over ten years ago, the area was in the middle of significant rains, and small creeks to larger rivers were overflowing their banks.
A local landowner and his family were using the opportunity to look for artifacts that those floods may have uncovered. What they found looked like a basketball stuck in the muddy bank of their creek.
With a lot of work digging, they uncovered a substantial bone. With some help, they soon learned that they had discovered a mammoth femur.
Chris Clingan is the Director of Mahaska County Conservation and arrived in the position in January of 2023. “I kind of joke about me being like a blister showing up after the work is all done.”
Through his career in conservation, the replica, and the mammoth display at the Environmental Learning Center, he says he is proud of the work accomplished and the community effort to help showcase such a unique display.
Clingan mentioned Sandy Bailey and Jane Krutzfeldt that helped attain the grant through MidWestOne to fund the replica mammoth.
Laura DeCook, Naturalist with Mahaska County Conservation, was the person helping to lead the dig site when it was taking place.
“It’s exciting because it’s sort of like a wrap-up of all the work that volunteers had done during the mammoth dig and planning for the environmental learning center,” said DeCook. “We’re excited to draw people into Oskaloosa and Mahaska [County].”
DeCook said that seeing the replica brings back “a lot of memories from the dig.”
Those days at the dig site varied greatly from dry to wet and boggy. Some days were brutally hot, while others were downright freezing.
There may be a display now with a mammoth replica, but many questions remain about the ‘Mahaska Mammoth.’
How did they die? We know there were at least three of them here. “It’s a mystery,” says DeCook.
That mystery keeps people involved to this day as they continue to study and is a way for people to continue to be involved, even into the next generation.
Watch the video for more information from Clingan and DeCook about the environmental learning center and the ‘Mahaska Mammoth.’
